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Copyright 1911 

By the 

Beet Sugar Gazette Company 



©CI,A283700 



THE HISTORY OF THE SUGAR BEET 
AND BEET SUGAR 

Twelve years ago the beet sugar industry was unknown 
in Michigan. Last year there were in that state, roundly, 
90,000 acres of land under beet cultivation, yielding 720,- 
000 tons of beets, which, cut in sixteen factories, turned 
out 90,000 tons of granulated sugar. 

Prior to 1899 there was not a single sugar mill in 
Colorado. In 1908-09 beets were harvested in the moun- 
tain state from 126,842 acres, with a total yield of i,- 
252,320 tons, which, worked up in 15 mills, gave 115,000 
tons or 230,000,000 lbs. of granulated sugar. 

Two decades ago there was practically no beet sugar 
industry in the United States. Now beets are grown on 
about 370,000 acres, yielding 3,600,000 tons of beets 
sliced in 63 factories, with a total annual output of 421,- 
000 tons of sugar. 

One hundred and sixty-two years ago the world did 
not even dream of the presence of sugar in the beet. Now 
there are some 1,400 beet sugar factories the world over 
producing over 7,000,000 tons of sugar annually. Man- 
kind knew only cane sugar produced in the tropics and 
shipped from there to other countries of the civilized 
world until the beet appeared on the world's stage and 
■inaugurated a century lasting battle with the powerful 
cane. 

It was the German chemist of the Berlin University, 
Andrew S. Marggraf who, in 1747, made the epochal 
discovery that the beet carries in its juice sugar of exact- 
ly the same properties as the sugar contained in the cane. 
Important as this discovery was, it did not yield any im- 
mediate consequences and its fate was that of other great 
discoveries : it was forgotten for a number of years by 
the outside world. The scientists, however, recognizing 
the great importance of the marvelous discovery, con- 
tinued Marggraf's work, the main object in view being 
to find a practical method for the extraction of the sugar 
from beets. It required not less than half a century 
before Francis Karl Achard, the talented disciple of the 
discoverer, finally succeeded in inventing and elaborating 
a method of producing sugar from the beet on a large 
scale. So successful was Achard in his research work 



concerning' both beet culture and sugar extraction from 
beets that he aroused wide popular interest, and rumors 
of his success reached even the king- of Prussia, Fred- 
erick William III, with whose aid in 1799 the first beet 
sugar factory of the world was built on the Cunern es- 
tate, near Steinau, in Silesia. Pretty soon the erection of 
other sugar factories followed in Prussia as well as in 
other European countries. In Bohemia, for instance, 
sugar mills were in operation as early as 1802. 

While factory building in France commenced only in 
181 1, it was nevertheless from the French dominion that 
the new industry on a large scale spread to other Euro- 
pean countries. No less a personage than the great 
French emperor, Napoleon I, brought real life into the 
new industry. As a farsighted statesman, he recognized 
the great advantages connected with a future beet sugar 
industry that would produce at home all the sugar needed 
by his people. For this reason he at once, by a decree 
of 1812, appropriated 100,000 hectares, or 247,100 acres, 
exclusively for the cultivation of sugar beets and 1,600,- 
000 francs for experiments in connection with beet rais- 
ing and sugar extraction. 

The interest of Napoleon was due to the continental 
blockade that excluded all products manufactured in 
England and her colonies from the European markets. 
As a consequence the price of cane sugar rose to an ex- 
traordinary height : it was more than 30 cents per pound 
in the period from 1807 to 181 5. Under such circum- 
stances the erection of beet sugar factories was a very 
profitable investment of capital and it is, therefore, not 
to be wondered at that in France, as early as 1812 some 
40 factories were in operation, working up 98,813 tons of 
beets obtained from 16,758 acres, and yielding a total out- 
put of 3,300,000 lbs. of sugar. For the first time in the 
history beet sugar came to compete with the tropical 
product. From very modest beginnings in the first quar- 
ter of the nineteenth century the beet sugar industry 
grew to the enormous dimensions of to-day, crowding out 
cane sugar from the markets of the European continent 
and successfully competing with the tropical product in 
many other countries. 

With the downfall of the first Napoleon and annul- 
ment of the continental blockade, cane sugar could be 



had on European markets at a very cheap price. This 
was a death blow for the new industry and a great num- 
ber of the first beet sugar factories had to stop operation. 
It was inevitable, not only for the reason mentioned, but 
also on account of the poor methods used in both beet 
culture and sugar manufacture, making the cost of sugar 
production very high. While the first beet sugar fac- 
tories in Germany were closed down and mostly con- 
verted into other industrial establishments, some sugar 
factories in France survived Napoleon's downfall — a fact 
due largely to essential improvements in the methods of 
sugar production which have been meanwhile introduced ; 
as, for instance, juice extraction by means of hydraulic 
presses, filtration and purification with the aid of bone- 
black, application of steam for heating and boiling pur- 
poses instead of open fire, and so on. Pretty soon con- 
ditions in Germany changed in favor of the sugar beet. 
At the end of the twenties of the nineteenth century the 
price of all kinds of grain fell considerably. This com- 
pelled the farmers to take up the sugar beet again. The 
building of sugar factories started anew and the manu- 
facture of beet sugar has increased ever since. 
A few statistical data will give us a good idea as 
to the gigantic progress made by the beet sugar industry, 
and show how the beet gradually gained superiority over 
cane in the fierce fight between the rival plants lasting 
already for a century. Thus, according to the bureau of 
statistics, the world's sugar crop derived from beets was : 

In 1854-55 182,000 tons 

In 1864-65 536,000 tons 

In 1871-72 1.020,000 tons 

In 1881-82 1,782,000 tons 

In 1891-92 3, 501, 000 tons 

In 1899-1900 5,510,000 tons 

and at present the quantity of beet sugar produced per 
annum is over 7,000,000 tons. The ratio between beet 
and cane can be seen from the following table : 
Year. Total lbs. sugar. % beet. % cane. 

1887 17,231,798,720 35.2 64.8 

1890 18,636,976,160 43.0 57.0 

1895 23,866,791 ,720 444 55-6 

1900 24,274,564,160 50.8 49.2 

1907 32,179,724,128 49.7 50.3 

3 



In connection with the historical data mentioned above, 
these figures are very interesting and instructive, indeed, 
as they show what the genius of men like Marggraf and 
Achard can create and what can be achieved through the 
efforts of two or three generations. Prior to 1747 man- 
kind did not know even of the existence of sugar in the 
beet; prior to 1799 there was no beet sugar factory in 
the world ; up to the middle of the nineteenth century 
the sugar obtained from the beets was quite insignificant 
in the world's sugar supply ; now it plays a great if not 
predominant role on the globe's sugar markets, as not 
less than half of the saccharine matter needed by man- 
kind is derived from beets. The time of the tropics being 
the one location producing the sweet stuff has passed 
away, nay, the center of gravity in the world's sugar 
supply has been removed from the tropics to the north- 
ern countries. 

In the earliest development of the beet sugar industry 
it was believed that the beet was confined to certain 
regions. However, cultivated first in Silesia and Saxony, 
it gradually spread to other states of what is now known 
as the German empire, as well as to Austro-Hungary, 
France and Russia; and nowadays we can find it also in 
Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Italy — in short, in 
all European countries with the exception of England 
and Norway. 

Nor is Europe the only part of the world engaged in 
beet culture. A history of the extension of the beet 
would practically include all parts of the globe wherever 
civilized people live. The explanation for such wonder- 
ful expansion of interest in the beet is to be found on the 
one hand in the great adaptability of the beet to various 
climates and soils and on the other hand in the important 
economic advantages which come with the introduction 
of the beet sugar industry. In all countries where men 
have had long experience in beet culture, observations 
and results obtained have conclusively shown that it has 
proved to be a powerful factor in the regeneration of 
agriculture, as it necessitated doing away with the old, 
wasteful methods of cultivation and introduced scientific, 
intensive methods greatly improving the condition of the 
soil and its fertility, and hence benefiting also the crops 
rotating with the beet. As a consequence, land values 



increased wherever the sugar industry was estabhshed. 
It reclaimed much hitherto worthless land. It gave rise 
to many new industries, bringing healthful work and 
prosperity to the rural population. Pulp, molasses, the 
leaves, tops and broken ends of the beets, proved to be an 
excellent food for cattle and sheep ; the resulting manure 
distributed on the fields returned the plant food removed 
by the beet crops. The refuse molasses has also brought 
into life a new alcohol industry. The advantages from 
growing sugar beets are so far-reaching and manifold 
that it would require too much space to go into the de- 
tails of all the important consequences. 

It should not be supposed, however, that the marvelous 
development of the beet sugar industry in France, Ger- 
many, Austro-Hungary, Russia, as well as in other Euro- 
pean countries, took place always under favorable cir- 
cumstances. On the contrary, a great many obstacles 
have been encountered; and it required much energy, 
knowledge, hard w^ork and capital to overcome the diffi- 
culties. First of all, the farmers, having little experi- 
ence in beet growing, furnished the factories with beets 
of very poor quality. This can evidently be seen from 
the fact that in 1872-73 the beets in France yielded 5.70 
per cent sugar, while the output of sugar from the beets 
in the same country was 12.66 per cent on an average for 
the period between 1897-98 to 1906-07. The pretty low 
quality of the beets in Germany in the early development 
of the industry can be seen from the following figures: 
' In 1836-7 the sugar extraction from the beets was 5.55 
per cent; in 1866-7 the sugar extraction from the beets 
was 7.93 per cent; while for the period from 1897-8 to 
1906-7 it was 14.86 per cent. 

Inexperience on the part of factory managers has been 
another drawback. Inferior methods in sugar making 
caused high losses, boiling of the purified sugar juices 
in open pans furnishing low grade sugar. In addition, 
struggling with cane sugar and sometimes unfavorable 
legislation hindered the growth of the industry. Never- 
theless, it worked its way through all these difficulties to 
reach the present record. 

Is it, then, to be wondered at, that the beet industry 
has found its triumphant way into this country? The 
history of its development in the United States is partly 



at least a repetition of what we have learned about it in 
Europe, At the infancy period of the industry in this 
country the failures were largely due to inexperience in 
beet raising-, factory building and factory management, 
not to mention a score of other causes. The very first 
attempts to raise sugar beets in the United States date 
back to the thirties of the nineteenth century, a time 
when the European nations were struggling hard to 
establish the new beet industry. It was in 1830 that the 
first efforts to grow beets were made at Ensfield, near 
Philadelphia. In 1838 David L. Child made- an attempt 
at Northampton, Mass., with the discouraging result that 
the beets yielded only 6 per cent of sugar. Later the 
Gennert brothers from Germany erected a sugar factory 
at Chatsworth, 111., where they have been able to extract 
not more than 5^ per cent of sugar from the beets. They 
struggled for several years without success. The sugar 
mill was removed to several places and finally to Cali- 
fornia. The complete failure of all these enterprise? 
was caused primarily and chiefly through lack of interest 
on the part of the farmers, who did not grow the neces- 
sary amount of beets, the quality of which, in addition, 
left very much to be desired. Besides this the choice of 
the locations was quite unfortunate, as neither soil nor 
climate was well adapted, to beet culture. 

The first successful sugar factory was built in 1870 at 
Alvarado, Cal. This factory, later reorganized and at 
present owned by the Alameda Sugar Company, is still 
in operation. Late in the seventies beet sugar factories 
were erected in the states of Maine, Massachusetts, New 
Jersey and Delaware — without any success. Again, the 
reason why the efforts to establish the beet sugar in- 
dustry in those states failed is to be found mainly in the 
inexperience of the farmers to raise good beets and in 
sufficient quantity for the factories; further, in careless 
methods used in the mills by inexpert factory superin- 
tendents, in the small capacity of the sugar plants, mak- 
ing the production of. sugar too expensive; and last but 
not least, in lack of capital. All the failures, bitter and 
costly as they were, furnished knowledge and were, con- 
sequently, material for the final success. They taught the 
farmers and factory managers how to avoid mistakes in 
the future. 



By and by the systematic investigations made by the 
Department of Agriculture, the numerous pubhcations in 
which Dr. Wiley, the present chief of the Bureau of 
Chemistry, laid down the results of his investigations in 
connection with the sugar beet, many experiments con- 
ducted in agricultural colleges and experiment stations 
(experiments that have demonstrated the conditions of 
soil and climate in many states to be favorable to beet 
culture) — all combined to arouse popular interest 
throughout the United States. 

GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRY. 

At the beginning of the nineties a great impetus was 
given to the sugar industry by the Oxnard brothers, men 
of remarkable success and considerable experience in the 
sugar business. They made a special trip to Europe for 
the express purpose of studying the beet sugar question, 
and they returned home with the strong conviction of 
great possibilities for the beet industry in this country. 
Energetic and practical as they were, they soon convert- 
ed their belief in the beet industry into a fact by build- 
ing a sugar mill in 1890 at Grand Island, Neb. In the 
following year they established two more sugar fac- 
tories, one at Chino, Cal., and another at Norfolk, Neb. 
From that time the beet sugar industry awoke to genuine 
life and is now growing slowly but surely. Thus from 
half a dozen factories in 1892 with a total output of 13,- 
000 tons of sugar, we see their number increased in 1902 
already to 41 factories slicing 1,895,812 tons beets raised 
on 216,400 acres, with a total annual yield of 218,406 
tons of sugar, a yield that was doubled in the last season 
(1908-9), when we find in operation 63 factories cutting, 
according to a preliminary estimate of the American 
Sugar Industry and Beet Sugar Gazette,^ 3,658,621 
tons of beets, with a total output of 421,244 
tons of sugar. Adding to this the round 300,000 tons of 
sugar derived from cane, we obtain a total of 721,000 
tons of sugar produced in the Union during the. past 
season. This quantity is somewhat imposing when we 
consider that the beet industry in this country is quite 
young. But, on the other hand, the amount of sugar 
produced equals only about one-fifth of the round 3.500,- 
000 tons of sugar consumed last year in the United 
States. The figures representing the total production of 



domestic sugar fall still more into insignificance when 
compared with the 1,300 factories or so in Europe, turn- 
ing out over 7,000,000 tons of sugar. What is, then, the 
trouble with the beet sugar industry in this country? It 
seems to us that aside from adverse legislation making 
the future of the industry uncertain, to say the least, the 
other main difficulties are to be found in the agricultural 
part of the industry as well as in the manufacturing 
part. A glance at the data given below is convincing as 
to the correctness of this opinion. The yield of beets per 
acre and the sugar percentage extracted from the beets 
was in the last three years as follows : 

1908-09. 1907-8. 1906-7. 

Tons % Tons % Tons % 

of i>aw of raw of law 
beets sugar beets sugar beets sugar 
per ex- per ex- per ex- 
acre, tracted. acre. tracted. acre. tracted. 

Germany ....10.9 17.5 12. i 15.7 12.8 15.7 

Austria 9.7 17.2 10.2 16.4 10.6 14.7 

France 10.8 12.6 10.2 12.9 10.4 13.5 

Belgium 12.5 14.7 ii.o 14.5 12.5 15.2 

Average ii.o 15.5 10.9 14.9 11.6 14.8 

United States. 8.1 12.6 '9.2 12.3 10.2 11.4 

Thus we see that the tonnage for the last three years 
was considerably higher in each of the individual Euro- 
pean countries than in the United States. This is also 
true of the sugar extraction. Further we find that the 
total average yield for the last three seasons in all four. 
European countries was 11.2 tons per acre and the total 
sugar extraction for the same period was 15. i per cent 
raw sugar, equal to 13.6 per cent white sugar, while the 
corresponding figures for the United States are 9.2 tons 
of beets per acre and 12.1 per cent raw, equal to 10.9 per 
Cent white sugar, a difference of 2.0 tons of beets per 
acre and of 3.0 per cent raw, equal to 2.7 per cent white 
sugar in extraction in favor of the European countries. 
These data in our opinion prominently account for the 
whole situation of the American beet sugar industry. It 
must be borne in mind that the average cost of raising 
beets is from $30 to $40 per acre, hence it takes from six 
to eight tons of beets to cover all the expenses for beet 
seed, plowing, sowing, cultivating, harvesting the beets, 
etc. Speaking generally, it is only the yield over seven 

8 



tons that constitutes the net profit of the beet grower. 
While the profit of the sugar beet growers is perhaps in 
the majority of cases higher than that from other crops, 
it is in some cases less. At any rate, it is evident from 
the above figures that the profit in beet raising greatly in- 
creases with each additional ton in the yield, as each such 
ton adds practically five dollars net profit. Similarly, it 
is easy to show that a certain extraction of sugar from 
the beets is required to cover the expenses for sugar 
manufacturing, and it is only the output above this ex- 
traction that makes the profit. Hence tlie whole problem 
is naturally confined to discovering means for increasing 
both the tonnage in field and the sugar extraction in 
factory, the capacity of the mill being also an important 
feature. If the American farmer could be taught how 
to get a greater tonnage than he obtains now and conse- 
quently to make more money with beets, he would be able 
to give the greatest possible impetus to the raising of 
beets. 

In the following pages we shall discuss all th^ three 
questions that form, so to speak, the center of grav- 
ity of the whole industry. We shall also try to indicate 
the most recent developments in agricultural science for 
the benefit of the intelligent and progressive farmer on 
the one hand, and, on the other, be suggestive to the 
sugar manufacturer. In doing so we are very far from 
the thought of exhausting these important questions 
partly already treated in a number of articles in The 
American Sugar Industry and Beet Sugar Gazette, 
since any one of them would require an extensive essay. 
Bat we hope that these pages may give rise to a series of 
articles from the pens of other writers, so that enough 
light will be thrown on the problems to make plain to 
interested parties the principles involved in raising beets 
and manufacturing sugar to better advantage. Not un- 
til these questions are solved, and solved in a thorough 
manner, will the beet sugar industry in the United 
States develop to an extent worthy of this country. 

ELEMENTS NECESSARY FOR THE LIFE OF PLANTS. 

Of the eighty elements or so known to the chemists 
and, as far as our present knowledge goes, known to con- 
stitute all organic ?,nd inorganic matter occurring in na- 
ture, only about ten are indispensable for the life of 



plants. Among these elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, 
nitrogen and sulphur are always, and phosphorus very 
often, absolutely necessary for the formation of proteins, 
the very material for building the protoplasm, the physi- 
cal basis of life. The other four elements — namely po- 
tassium, calcium, magnesium and iron — have definite spe- 
cial functions to which we shall refer later. Of these ele- 
ments carbon, hydrogen and oxygen occur, as is well 
known, in great abundance in nature in the shape of car- 
bon dioxide and water, in the air as well as in the soil. 
The other elements — calcium, magnesium, iron and sul- 
phur — are contained, as a rule, in sufficient quantities in 
the soil, where they occur in the shape of minerals or 
salts. There remain, then, only the three elements — ni- 
trogen, potassium and phosphorus — in which many soils 
are deficient. These three elements, without which the 
beets can neither grow and develop to their natural size 
nor ripen, have justly been called the tripod of agricul- 
ture, since they are as necessary for the life of beets and 
of plants generally as are brain, heart and lungs — the 
vital tripod — indispensable for the life of animals. Jt is, 
then, natural that beet growers must pay their greatest, at- 
tention to the presence of these elements in the soil. 
While, as mentioned already, nitrogen is an integral part 
of proteins and albuminoids necessary for the formation 
of protoplasm, it especially stimulates a large leaf growth. 
The importance of this phenomenon is evident from the 
fact that the beet leaves represent nature's chemical labor- 
atory in which sugar is made. 

The great physiological role of potash will be compre- 
hended by remembering that it is by means of potash that 
the carbon dioxide and water taken up by the beet are 
converted — the co-operation of the chlorophyll granules 
in the leaves being necessary — into sugar or starch. 

Of not less importance is phosphoric acid. Associated 
with the albuminoids or even constituting often an in- 
tegral part of some proteins, and hence of the organs and 
tissues of the beet, it has been also found as a result of 
numerous chemical investigations that phosphorus is con- 
tained in seeds practically throughout the plant kingdom. 
The very ability of a plant to produce seed suggests its 
state of ripeness. And it is just the power of phosphoric 
acid to hasten the maturity of beets that- is so highly 

lo 



appreciated in beet culture. Phosphoric acifl or super- 
phosphate — containing as such a certain amount of free 
acid — are naturally able to dissolve albuminoids and to 
facilitate their transference to the seed. 

Although the cj[uantity of iron found in the beet root 
and leaves is very small, nevertheless this element must 
be considered as absolutely necessary for the life of the 
beets and all other plants, since it is an integral part of 
the cell kernels, as was demonstrated by Stoklasa, and 
stands also in close relation to chlorophyll, by means of 
which sugar, starch and carbohydrates generally are 
formed. 

One of the most prominent functions of calcium, espe- 
cially in the beet leaves, consists in its ability to combine 
with oxalic acid with which it forms an insoluble com- 
pound. The importance of this function is easily compre- 
hended by considering that free oxalic acid has an in- 
jurious effect upon the cell kernel, as was demonstrated 
by O. Loew. It further takes part in the formation of 
the cell membranes. To the influence of lime upon soil 
physics and biology we ma)'' refer later. 

The functions of magnesium are considered as very 
similar to those of calcium. Generally it has been found 
that magnesium and lime may be substituted for each 
ot^er in plants. In addition, according to latest researches, 
it is magnesium, not iron, that constitutes an integral part 
of the chlorophyll. 

SOIL FERTILITY. 

Having learned the most essential functions of the ten 
elements necessary for beets, let us consider now a ques- 
tion deserving our greatest attention, namely, soil fertil- 
ity. It is in a sense the alpha and omega of agriculture. 
To maintain the fertility of the soil is or rather ought to 
be the chief problem of rational farming. When is a 
soil fertile ? When it has the power to produce adequate 
crops. When has it this power? When the chemical, 
physical and biological conditions of the soil — of which 
more will be said — are in the right shape ; provided, of 
course, that the climatic conditions are favorable. Since 
soil fertility includes so many conditions, it is conceivable 
that a general standard by which to measure the fertility 
of a soil does not exist, at least not at the present status 
of agricultural science. We know, however, that the fer- 

II 



lility of the soil, or its crop producing power, depends not 
only upon the amount of plant food in the soil, but also 
upon its physical conditions ; first of all upon its texture, 
with which are closely connected porosity, moisture, tem- 
perature, water moving power of the soil, the presence of 
bacteria in it, etc. Hence, in order to answer the ques- 
tion as to whether or not a soil is fertile, we must not only 
chemically analyze the soil but examine it physically 
and bacteriologically as well. Often farmers who stand 
on war footing- with scientific agriculture and, therefore, 
sooner or later find their soil exhausted or worn out, send 
to their state experiment station a sample of soil for 
chemical analysis with the expectation of getting a defi- 
nite answer as to why their soil is not productive. Of 
course, they will always get useful information and ad- 
vice from the experiment station. In single typical cases 
they may even learn the actual cause of the trouble. For 
instance, if the chemical analysis has demonstrated defi- 
ciency of an essential plant food in available form, like 
potash for example, then the soil can be made more pro- 
ductive by fertilization with an ingredient containing the 
lacking element, provided the physical condition of the 
soil is all right! But in the majority of cases the chemical 
analysis alone won't do. Because only through the simul- 
taneous examination by the soil chemist, soil physicist and 
soil bacteriologist can a thoroughly intelligent answer be 
given. 

FERTILITY OF THE SOIL AS INFLUENCED BY ITS PLANT FOOD 
CONTENT. 

Let US first of all examine the fertility of the soil from 
the standpoint of a chemist, i. e., as far as the productive- 
ness depends upon the plant food. Is there a standard by 
which to judge the fitness of a soil for beet growing? 
In this connection we should like to mention a corre- 
spondence between Mr. R. L. Adams, Director of 
Spreckels' Experiment Station, Spreckels, California, and 
the writer. Mr. Adams wrote to the Michigan Experi- 
ment Station that he was "anxious to secure a standard 
to judge the value of land for beet raising from the stand- 
point of chemical analysis" * * * asking what the 
station "considers the soil should contain in the way of 
nitrogen, phosphoric ac-id and potash * * * ^^^t is 
what percentage should the soil analyze to be good for 

12 



production without requiring additional fertilization.** 
* * * This letter was referred to us for reply which 
in some essential points was as follows: "There is no 
chemical standard for all cases enabling one to find out 
as to whether or not a soil is adapted to raising sugar 
beets or to judge the value of land for this purpose. In 
other words, if we know the chemical composition of the 
land we are not able as yet to positively state whether and 
in what degree it is fit for beet culture. This can easily 
be comprehended by taking into consideration that the 
beet crop depends not solely upon the amount of nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid and potash contained in the soil : the phy- 
sical properties — such as texture, temperature and moist- 
ure of the soil — as well as the methods of its cultivation 
in connection with crop rotation have the greatest in- 
fluence upon its productiveness. The surest means to 
ascertain the value of land for producing sugar beets 
will always be found in actual experiments. Raising 
beets on differerit parts of the land under investigation 
for one year, or still better for several seasons, the ton- 
nage obtained per acre and the chemical analysis of the 
beets as to their sugar content and purity will always re- 
main the best guide in the valuation of beet land." 

As a matter of fact many investigations conducted by 
the Department of Agriculture as well as by agricultural 
colleges and experiment stations demonstrated the fact 
that practically in all cultivated or cultivatable soils, with 
few exceptions, there is an abundance of plant food. An 
ordinary farm soil contains in the neighborhood of 6,000 
lbs. nitrogen, 9,000 lbs. phosphoric acid and 30.000 lbs. 
potash per acre-foot. The requirement of plant food for 
an average beet crop is quite insignificant when compared 
with these quantities, as a simple calculation will show 
us. Admitting the variation in the composition of the 
roots in certain limits, we can assume that beet roots con- 
tain about 0.15 per cent nitrogen, 0.07 per cent phos- 
phoric acid and 0.35 per cent potash. Since the beet leaves 
are either left on the field or, when fed, their plant food 
is returned to the soil in the shape of manure, we are 
justified here in not taking the leaves into consideration. 
Hence, a crop of, say, twelve tons of beets to the acre 
removes the following quantities of plant food : 36.0 

13 



lbs. nitrogen, 16.8 lbs. phosphoric acid, 84.0 lbs. potash. 
Thus we see that the total plant food contained in ordi- 
nary farm soils is sufficient for continuous beet cropping 
for several hundred years. And yet practice has shown 
that even such lands very often do not give satisfactory 
crops. Why is it? The reason is that only a very small 
part of the total plant food is immediately available. 
What is available? Only the plant food that can be taken 
up by the beets and assimilated ; and this is true of chem- 
icals soluble in water or in exceedingly weak acid or salt 
solutions, such as occur in the soil. This is easily com- 
prehended when we consider that all useful minerals — 
such as potash, lime, phosphates, etc. — are taken up by 
the plant through root absorption. No solids, necessary 
as they may be for the plant, can be taken up by it. 
Hence, all insoluble mineral food is useless for the time 
being. But later they may undergo certain changes 
through the action of various agencies in the soil, thereby 
becoming soluble and consequently available. Since such 
changes often require considerable time and as the grow- 
ing period of sugar beets lasts only from four and a half 
to five and a half months, it is conceivable that the beets 
may be from time to time badly in need of certain min- 
erals performing important functions in the life of the 
plant. This is the chief reason why an adequate supply 
of available or soluble plant food has always a beneficial 
effect upon the growth, development and ripening of the 
beets. Such available plant food can be had in the shape 
of natural and artificial fertilizers. 

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 

The polemic waged from time to time in literature as 
tO' whether manure or artificial fertilizers are more use- 
ful in raising beets or other crops is hardly worth con- 
sidering. Both are powerful aids in intensive beet rais- 
ing. Both materially improve the fertility of the soil and 
increase the yield of beets-. While more will be said of 
manure in further pages we should like first to consider 
the commercial fertilizers. It is, it seems to us, worth 
while to discuss this subject somewhat at length, since 
the great importance of fertilizers for intensive beet 
growing has not been fully recognized in this country; 

14 



at least not in the West, where fertilizers are not used 
to any extent to speak of. 

It was the great Justus v. Liebig, the father of agri- 
cultural, chemistry, who, in 1840, laid down the chemical 
principles playing a vital part in the life of plants. In his 
famous book, "The Chemistry in Its i\pplication to Agri- 
culture and Physiology," he was the first clearly and 
precisely to pronounce that certain minerals are abso- 
lutely necessary for the life of plants. This recognized, 
he further pronounced that no soil can remain fertile for 
any length of time unless the minerals removed by con- 
tinuous cropping are returned to the soil ; that the state 
of agriculture in a country can be measured precisely by 
the phosphates (bone meal, superphosphates, guano and 
similar fertilizers) consumed. He even required of the 
German farmers to keep an accurate account of each 
field and to state how much of each mineral was given 
to or taken from the soil by certain crops. These and 
some other principles of Liebig, which have completely 
revolutionized the views that dominated in agriculture 
prior to Liebig, are as true to-day as they were seven dec- 
ades ago. It is, therefore, to be regretted that one of the 
consequences of his doctrines, namely the necessity of 
application of artificial fertilizers in intensive beet farm- 
ing, has not been adopted to its full extent in some sec- 
tions of this country. Liebig's fundamental theories, 
modified by the latest discoveries of experimental agricul- 
tural science as applied to beet raising, will certainly have 
a beneficial effect upon this important branch of agricul- 
ture. 

NITROGENOUS FERTILIZERS. 

Though the amount of nitrogen in the air is unlimited, 
it is only the leguminous plants that have the power to 
fee-d on the free nitrogen of the atmosphere by the aid of 
certain micro-organisms. All the other plants are able to 
assimilate only the so-called combined nitrogen in the 
shape of ammonia, nitrates and so on. Since the amount 
of fixed nitrogen coming into the soil with rain, dew, 
snow, etc., is quite small, being annually about ten pounds 
per acre, wdiich is only a small part of what is needed by 
most crops, the importance of applying artificial, nitrogen- 
ous manure is quite evident. But in what shape is it to 

15 



be used ? By virtue of the fundamental fact that the as- 
similation of plants is chemically speaking a reducing 
process, the plans are enabled to use, and do actually 
prefer as their food, the highest oxidation products oc- 
curring in nature — such as carbon dioxide (CO2), water 
(HoO) and nitric acid (HNO3). The nitrogenous fer- 
tilizers found on the market contain nitrogen in three dif- 
ferent forms — as nitric, ammoniacal and organic nitro- 
gen. The nitric nitrogen, such as nitrate of soda or ni- 
trate of lime, can immediately be taken and assimilated 
by the beet. The chief point to be emphasized here is tht 
fact that nitrate of soda cannot permanently be absorbed 
by any soil. This, as well as its exceedingly ready solu- 
bility in water, renders it probable that a part of it will 
be lost by drainage after a rain. It is, therefore, not ad- 
visable to apply the total amount of nitrate of soda at one 
time, but rather to use it in several portions at different 
times. The scheme most favored in Germany is to use 
about one-third before or during the drilling, one-third 
after thinning and the last part during the following hoe- 
ings. Since nitrate of soda retards somewhat the ripen- 
ing of the beets the last fertilization must not take place 
too late, say, not later than in the second half of June ; 
as otherwise the beets will not have time enough to ma- 
ture, and unripe beets, besides having a low sugar per- 
centage, can be worked up in the factory only with great 
difficulty. The qualities of nitrate of soda make it ad- 
mirably adapted for the West with its semi-arid cHmate. 

The ammoniacal nitrogen is usually sold in the shape 
of sulphate of ammonia, a by-product in the manufacture 
of gas, coke and bone-black. While this chemical as such 
can be taken up by the beets, it is usually first oxidized 
in the soil to a nitrate, when it is absorbed by the beet 
roots. Sulphate of ammonia being not so easily soluble 
in water as nitrate of soda and being fixed in most soils, 
especially in clay and humus, is not subject to loss through 
rain. It is, therefore, more fit for the eastern states with 
their rainy climate. 

Organic nitrogen — sold on the market as tankage, 
dried blood, dried fish, etc. — is changed in the soil chiefly 
through the action of bacteria, first into ammonia, then 
into nitrites and finally into nitrates, when the absorption 
by beet roots takes place. Organic nitrogen, as such, be- 

16 



ing not easily subject to loss through drainage, can be 
used advantageously in the East, although any one of the 
three nitrogenous types can be used in case of emergency 
throughout the country. 

SUPERPHOSPHATES. 

Phosphoric acid is sold as superphosphate, bone meal, 
acid phosphate, etc. It is best to use superphosphate 
which has always been a favorite fertilizer with the beet 
grower in Europe. The reason for its excellent influence 
upon the beet crop is, apart from its usefulness as such, 
probably due to the fact that being an acid salt it is able 
to dissolve a certain amount of other insoluble plant food 
contained in the soil and thus to make it available. The 
fact that superphosphate promotes the maturity of the 
beets is not to be underestimated. Superphosphate is 
usually distributed on the field in the spring shortly be- 
fore drilling. 

POTASH FERTILIZERS. 

Potash is found on the market in very different salts, 
for instance as kainite, carnallite, sulphate of potash, 
muriate of potash and so forth. There must be positive 
determination not to use any potash fertilizers containing 
chlorine, wherever it can be avoided, since this element 
has a tendency to decrease the sugar content of the beets. 
If sulphate of potash cannot be found on the market, then 
kainite, containing less chlorine than either carnallite or 
muriate of potash, should be preferred. Muriate of 
potash, having the largest percentage of chlorine, should 
be avoided altogether. Whatever potash fertilizers may 
be used, they should be applied to the crop preceding the 
beet crop, or at least before winter, the reason being that 
the potash salts usually contain foreign matter which is 
advantageously removed through drainage before the 
potash proper can be absorbed by the beet roots. 

In what quantities are the fertilizers to be applied? 
Since the chief aim of prudent farming should always 
be to maintain the fertility of the soil, it is obvious that all 
the mineral plant food taken from the soil must be re- 
turned to it. Our calculation above shows that a beet 
crop of twelve tons to the acre removes 36.0 lbs. of nitro- 
gen, 16.8 lbs. of phosphoric acid and 84.0 lbs. of potash. 

17 



Now it must be taken into consideration that fi-om 30 to 
50 per cent of the fertiHzer apphed is lost, partly me- 
chanically — for instance, through leaching out — and part- 
ly chemically — through formation of insoluble compounds 
with ingredients contamed in the soil ; hence the above 
figures should be correspondingly increased. In the in- 
tensive beet raising districts of Germany the farmers use 
about the following amounts to the acre : 40 lbs. nitrogen, 
80 lbs. phosphoric acid, 120 lbs. potash. The reason for 
the use of a considerable excess of superphosphate in 
Germany is very likely to be found, on the one hand, in 
the fact that the phosphoric acid is capable of being dis- 
tributed in a very fine state in the soil and, hence, of be- 
coming easily accessible to the beet roots ; and, on the 
other hand, in that it has the power to dissolve various in- 
soluble substances contained in the soil and thus to render 
them available as food for the beets. 

It is not possible, of course, nor is it necessary to 
consider here the economical side of the application of 
commercial fertilizers in detail. This topic is dealt with 
in many bulletins of state experiment stations in which 
valuable information regarding this question can be 
found. There is, however, one thing we should like to 
emphasize, namely, the fact that one pound of plant 
food — be it nitrogen, potash, or phosphoric acid — is 
cheapest in high-grade fertilizers and highest in low- 
grade ones. For instance, for the year 1908 in Michigan 
the average cost of one pound of nitrogen was in low- 
grade fertilizers 30.5 cents and in high-grade fertilizers 
22.2 cents, a difference of 8.3 cents. Equally the aver- 
age cost of one pound of either available phosphoric acid 
or of potash was in the low-grade fertilizers 8.2 cents, 
whereas in the high-grade fertilizers 6 cents. Thus, a 
Michigan farmer could save last year more than a quar- 
ter of his fertilizer bill by buying the high-grade fertil- 
izers only. The conditions are similar throughout the 
country. 

In order to ascertain whether or not a soil contains all 
the nourishment needed by the plants, the soil as such is 
usually analyzed. Such analysis gives accurate results 
as far as the total plant food is concerned, which, by the 
way, does not stand in any definite relation to the quan- 
tity of available food. Neither has such relation an acid. 



extract of the soil. Of more value is the examination 
of a water extract. However, the execution of the an- 
alyses mentioned requires considerable time. We should 
like to call attention to the drainage waters in the fields. 
Such waters are very seldom, if at all, sent to experi- 
ment stations for analysis. And yet the examination of 
drainage waters, requiring less labor and time, will give 
very valuable information needed in order to answer 
the question with regard to the available plant food. If, 
for example, the analysis of the drainage water shows 
the presence of potash, then the application of potash 
fertilizers would be a waste of money. If no potash is 
found in the water then potash fertilizers should be used. 
Or if, for example, the drainage water contains in addi- 
tion to potash also nitric acid, then the application of 
phosphates only is advisable. The presence of ammonia 
in drainage water would indicate that ammonia being 
formed through the action of bacteria in the soil cannot 
be absorbed by it. Under such conditions it is well to 
somewhat modify the texture of the soil by applying 
barn-yard manure or a green manure which will increase 
the humus of the soil and enable the same to fix the 
ammonia. 

THE LAW OF MINIMUM. 

Careful examinations of soils and drainage waters 
with regard to the available plant food are necessary in 
view of the law of minimum reigning in the vegetable 
kingdom. By virtue of this law it is the minimum of any 
essential plant food that is the measure of fertility. To 
illustrate : If there is in the soil enough available phos- 
phoric acid and nitrogen to produce, say, fifteen tons of 
beets per acre and only so much potash as to produce not 
more than ten tons, then the actual crop will consist of 
only ten tons of beets. The excess of nitrogen and phos- 
phoric acid will be, so to speak, idle, and the nitrogen 
will eventually be lost through drainage after it has been 
oxidized to a nitrate for which no soil has a permanent 
absorptive power. Hence, the importance for the farmer 
to know what his soil contains and in what proportions. 

BARNYARD MANURE. 

Concerning barnyard manure, the farmer may dis- 
tribute on the fields to be brought under beet cultiva- 

19 



tion all the manure he has. We do not think that an 
average farmer has more than ten, or at most twenty, 
tons of manure to spare for each acre; in the majority 
of cases he has less, and it is just in such instances that 
the lacking manure should be supplemented with arti- 
ficial fertilizers. The manure, however, should be used 
judiciously, first of all at the right time. It is best to 
apply it to the crop preceding the beets or at least to 
plow it under early in the fall. That way the manure 
will have time enough to decompose quite completely, 
the organic nitrogen to oxidize to nitrate, when it be- 
comes available. Barnyard manure is valuable not merely 
on account of the potash, nitrogen and phosphoric acid 
present, but probably just as much for the reason that 
it improves the texture-of the soil, it increases its humus 
content and, consequently, its water holding capacity 
as well as its absorptive power for ammonia. In addi- 
tion, the manure darkens the soil, enabling it to absorb 
more of the sun's rays and hence making it warmer, 
which is especially important for the early germination 
and development of the young beetlets. Moreover, it 
introduces into the soil countless bacteria which are bene- 
ficial to the soil in a good many ways, as for the nitrifica- 
tion of the organic and ammonical nitrogen, for the 
oxidation of vegetable matter, which processes generate 
acids dissolving a certain amount of soil ingredients and 
making them available for the nutrition of the plants. 
The application of manure and of commercial fertil- 
izers in beet raising countries is the consequence of num- 
berless experiments, observations and results obtained 
with the sugar beet during more than half a century. 
Out of the great mass of evidence as to the effect of 
manure we wish to cite only a few instances. The effect 
of manure upon the tonnage can be seen from the experi- 
ments by Liebscher in Germany: 

Manure Yield 

per hectare. per hectare. 

Kilograms. Kilograms. 

None 31,065 

20.000 '. 34,785 

30,000 3MR5 

40,000 42,100 

The quality of the beets remained in these experiments 
practically the same. Recalculating these figures we find 

20 



that the application of 15 tons manure to the acre — 
which is reasonable — added to the crop more than three 
tons of beets. 

Wagner's experiments in the same country have dem- 
onstrated that 100 kilograms Chili saltpeter with 15^ 
to 16 kilograms of nitrogen increase the crop about 4,500 
kilograms of beets and 900 kilograms of leaves per 
hectare. Recalculating these data and recalling that one 
ton of Chili saltpeter costs sixty dollars, or about nine- 
teen cents per pound of nitrogen, we find in round figures 
that $2.60 worth of saltpeter added to the crop two tons 
of beets to the acre, thus leaving a considerable net profit. 
Similar experiments could be quoted by the hundreds. 

In the face of these data it is, then, logical to suppose 
that the American farmer readily uses fertilizers and 
takes good care of his barnyard manure, since their bene- 
ficial eflfect upon soil and crops are so important and 
manifold. It is, therefore, all the more strange that the 
following facts can be stated. It is estimated that by 
leaching from manure on American farms an amount 
of plant food — that could be easily saved — is annually 
lost which is equivalent to $200,000,000. Furthermore, 
practically all the nitrate of soda found on the world's 
markets is derived from the American continent. How- 
ever, it is Europe, not this country, that uses the lion's 
share, as will be seen from the following figures given 
in the American Fertilizer Hand Book, 1908, page 78: 

Consumption of nitrate of soda in 

metric tons. 1895. 1900. 1905. 

United Kingdom 117,500 135,000 101,000 

Continent of Europe 789,500 991,000 1,089,000 

United States 110,000 175,000 320,000 

World 1,024,000 1,324,000 1,559,000 

Thus we see that even in 1905, when the United States 
used relatively the largest amount of sodium nitrate. 
this country's share was only one-quarter the amount 
consumed in Europe. In his book mentioned above, J. v. 
Liebig deplores the export of bones from Bavaria to 
Saxony, not hesitating to call it a robbery committed on 
the Bavarian fields and predicting sad consequences for 
the beet sugar industry. How much more is it to be re-, 
gretted that the still more valuable nitrate of soda is 
exported from the American continent to all countries of 

21 J 



the, world. The significance of this fact will be perhaps 
better comprehended bearing in mind that the other prin- 
cipal nitrogenous fertilizer — the sulphate of ammonia — 
is produced practically only in Europe, this country pro- 
ducing 12.2 per cent, while the production in the Euro- 
pean countries equals 87,8 per cent of the total amount. 
However, in using artificial fertilizers or barnyard 
manure, it is of the utmost importance to apply them 
judiciously, i. e., the proper amounts and at the right 
time. To rich land having enough plant food no fertil- 
izers should be applied, since the inconsiderably increased 
tonnage, if this be the case at all, will hardly pay the 
extra expense for the fertilizers. Barnyard manure ought 
to be used early in the fall to give a chance tO' the organic 
nitrogen to oxidize, at least partly, to nitrates, the pres- 
ence of which is especially important for the young beet- 
lets to get a vigorous growth. When manure is applied 
late in the spring the plantlets failing to find in their 
early development the necessary food, are not able to get 
a good start and will take up the nitrates much later. As 
a consequence the beets will not be ripe in time, and will 
contain a considerable percentage of non-sugars, repre- 
senting a poor raw material for sugar making. This is 
also true of artificial nitrogenous fertilizers, which should 
not be applied too late, since the maturing of the beets 
would be equally retarded. The value of systematic and 
rational application oi fertilizers, be they natural or arti- 
ficial ones, which should supplement each other, lies in the 
fact that they preserve the fertility of the soil enabling 
one to get adequate crops, not only occasionally, but year 
for year, and not only of the beets alone, but of the 
rotating crops as well. 

CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 

The amount of artificial and natural fertilizers can 
very materially be reduced without disadvantage through 
the proper kind of tillage operations, which is important 
in view of the fact that commercial fertilizers mean cer- 
tain expenses and manure is often not to be had in suffi- 
cient quantities. First of all deep plowing is essential. 
Besides loosening and aerating the soil, increasing its 
water holding and water moving capacity, which is of 
great moment, as the soil is then better enabled to meet 
the needs of the crop, deep plowing means also a better 

22 



and more thorough utiHzatioii of the chemicals contained 
in the lower layers of the soil. It will enable the beet to 
go down deeper into the soil, and to get water and food 
when necessary. It will increase not only the beet yield, 
but benefit the succeeding crops as well. A. farmer who 
is accustomed to shallow plowing reminds us of one who 
keeps a part of his capital hidden, instead of utilizing it. 
What would a farmer say when advised by somebody to 
cultivate only a part of his soil and to allow the rest of 
his good cultivatable land to lie idle? Or how would he 
like the suggestion not to use his farmyard manure on the 
fields but simply to throw it away? We don't think he 
would like such ideas. But this is exactly what he does 
when he plows only shallow. In Germany they plow as 
deep as sixteen and eighteen inches. In this country, 
namely in some of the western states, we saw a good 
many fields plowed only to a depth of seven to eight 
inches, and such fields were brought under beet cultiva- 
tion. True, one must not plow so deep as to bring to the 
surface several inches of subsoil in one season, since the 
dead soil being poorer in humus and available plant food 
would materially impair the soil and hence diminish the 
crop at least for one season. But one to one and one- 
half inches of subsoil could and should be added to a 
shallow soil each season. This would hardly diminish 
its productiveness. Through nature's agencies, such as 
oxygen, ozone and carbon dioxide, through rain, snow, 
humic acids and bacteria, as well as through the tillage 
operations, the insoluble plant food of the subsoil will be 
rendered available, humus increased, and thus the sub- 
soil will gradually be changed into soil. In a few years 
the shallow soil will be converted into a deep soil en- 
tirely fit for beet culture as well as for other deep-rooting 
vegetables. The absolute necessity of deep plowing for 
raising beets lies in the fact that they are deep-rooting 
plants, having the tendency to penetrate deep into the 
soil, and where the soil is not deep enough the beet roots 
are turned aside from their natural direction, become 
misshapen and in addition grow out of the soil. Such 
beets are deficient in sugar content and purity, as has 
been demonstrated by numerous experiments. Further- 
more, countless chemical analyses of soils have conclu- 
sively shown that the upper part, say, eight inches, does 

23 



not contain much more plant food than the next lower 
ten inches. Even the subsoil proper has practically the 
same quantity of ingredients, although not in available 
form. This being true, it means, figuratively speakingj 
that a German beet grower utilizes his land twice as 
effectively as do some western farmers, as far as plant 
food is concerned. 

Fall plowing is of great moment, inasmuch as it enables 
the soil to take up all the precipitations that will fall dur- 
ing the autumn and winter. A soil with hard, compact 
surface will allow most of the water to run ofif and go to 
waste. On the other hand it allows the excessive water 
to penetrate into the subsoil. Through fall plowing the 
loosened soil is for several months advantageously ex- 
posed to the influence of air,- light, rain, snow, tempera- 
ture variations, which agencies, as mentioned above, con- 
vert the unavailable, so to speak, distasteful plant food 
into the assimilable form that can be taken up by the 
beets. In addition early plowing in the fall will prevent 
weeds from going to seed. 

Rational rotation is one of the fundamental principles 
of scientific agriculture. Since the rooting habits of vari- 
ous crops are different and the roots are the organs to 
absorb the dissolved mineral substances, it is clear why 
rotation gives an excellent means to keep under tribute 
the soil in its whole cultivatable depth as far as plant 
nourishment is concerned. While a soil may be ex- 
hausted for shallow rooting plants, it can contain still 
lots of food for deep rooting crops like the sugar beet. 
The very fact that various crops remove different quan- 
tities of different elements, that the beet crop, for in- 
stance, removes less nitrogen and phosphorus than a 
corn crop, that barley removes more potash than wheat, 
etc., suggests that it is only through a prudent rotation 
that the plant food in the soil can more completely and 
systematically be utilized. Rotation essentially improves 
the texture of the soil, the stubbles and roots remaining 
from various crops in the soil at different depths furnish 
by decay humus which is beneficial to the soil in many 
ways. That proper rotation of crops destroys a good 
many weeds and prevents in a large measure the ac- 
cumulation of insects, fungi and a score of beet diseases 
is a well known fact. And yet some sugar companies 

24 



anxious as they are to cut in their mills as many beets 
as they possibly can get, are growing beets on the same 
land year after year to find finally their soil exhausted. 
In a few instances, it is admitted, some farmers may get 
good beet crops for several years in succession, but on 
the whole a system without rotation is not prudent and 
will give in the majority of cases smaller tonnage and 
poorer beets. 

Here it was our intention to discuss a number of ques- 
tions, namely: the physical, chemical and biological role 
which lime plays in the soil, the modern scientific means 
by which nitrogen is accumulated in the soil, the late 
experiments showing the ability of sodium to replace po- 
tassium to a certain degree, the importance of thinning 
at the right "psychological moment," the importance of 
frequent hoeing by which operation, as the saying goes, 
"sugar is hoed into the beets," and some others. But 
since practically all these topics have meanwhile been 
treated in The American Sugar Industry and Beet 
Sugar Gazette by other writers and treated in a quite 
thorough and able manner, we wish to eliminate them 
altogether. There is, however, one topic which we 
should like to touch upon once more. It is the question 
as to whether sugar beets exhaust the soil. 

DO SUGAR beets EXHAUST THE SOIL ? 

Since the above question is of vital importance to 
every beet grower we feel that it is worth while to make 
every effort to shed upon it as much light as possible. 
The American farmer upon whose willingness and readi- 
ness to grow beets rests in the last analysis the great 
beet sugar industry to be created in this country, has 
a right to know everything concerning this paramount 
question. Let us, then, find the truth by a careful 
analysis. In saying that a crop exhausts the soil we have 
in mind, first of all, the amount of plant food removed 
by it. Does a beet crop remove more plant food than 

25 



other crops ? The answer to this question we find in the 
following table : 

AMOUNT OF FERTILITY REMOVED FROM AN ACRE, 

Phosphoric 

Kind of Crop. Yield. Nitrogen. Acid. Potash. 

Sugar beet 10 tons 30 lbs. 14 lbs. 70 lbs. 

Tobacco 1,600 lbs. 76 lbs. 16 lbs. 200 lbs. 

Corn 40 bus. 56 lbs. ■ 21 lbs. 23 lbs. 

Wheat 20 bus. 41 lbs. 13 lbs. 17 lbs. 

Oats 40 bus. 40 lbs. 14 lbs. 33 lbs. 

Barley 30 bus. 56 lbs. 17 lbs. 51 lbs. 

Clover hay 2 tons 82 lbs. 18 lbs. 88 lbs. 

Thus, it is readily seen that the beet takes from the 
soil the least amount of nitrogen .which is the most im- 
portant and the most expensive element, that this holds 
also true for phosphoric acid with the exception of wheat 
and oats taking from the soil practically the same amount 
of phosphorus as does the beet. It is only the potash of 
which a beet crop removes more than some other crops, 
but it requires less potash than tobacco and clover hay. 
The fact that the sugar beet removes less fertility from 
the soil than a good many other crops together with 
the prudent methods of cultivation used in beet growing 
account for the phenomenon that the beet used as a ro- 
tating crop increases the yield of most other crops ; it 
raises, for instance, the yield of rye, wheat and barley 
15, 24 and 25 per cent in the order named. How can 
the above remarkable facts scientifically be explained? 
Nothing is easier than that. Sugar is a carbohydrate 
and consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen only. For- 
tunately these elements do not cost the farmer a cent, 
as the wise bounteous nature furnishes the same in great 
abundance in the shape of carbon dioxide and water. But 
in addition to the sucrose there are some other elements 
which are contained in the beet, namely potassium, phos- 
phorus, nitrogen, lime, magnesia, etc. These elements 
form in the beet and hence in the sugar juices the so- 
called mineral non-sugars found later as ash in the 
meladas, second and third products as well as in granu- 
lateds and giving rise to the formation of molasses. And 
it is just these non-sugars that exhaust the soil, mak- 
ing at the same time a poorer grade of beets both in sugar 

26 



percentage and purity. Such non-sugars, exhausting, as 
they do the soil, must be returned to it by the use of 
manures and fertiHzers. It is, then, evident that if it 
would be possible to raise an ideal beet consisting of pure 
sugar juice, i, e., of sugar and water only, the soil would 
not be exhausted at all, no fertilizers would be needed 
after a beet crop. While this is an impossibility as some 
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are absolutely neces- 
sary for the formation of protoplasm, of seed and of the 
sucrose itself, the tendency must be alive to reduce the 
amount of non-sugars in the beet to the very minimum. 
The question naturally arises as to whether we have the 
means to attain this purpose. Fortunately this question 
can be answered in the affirmative. The proper selection 
of the beet seed, of the right kind of soil, further judi- 
cious fertilization and thoroughly scientific modes of cul- 
tivation are here of the greatest moment. The history 
of the sugar beet shows that with increased knowledge 
and experience in beet growing the non-sugar content of 
the beets was gradually diminished. In Dr. A. Ruemp- 
ler's "Die Nichtsuckerstoffe der Rueben/' p. 15, we read 
that in 1871 the fresh beets contained 0.772 per cent of 
ash and the dry substance contained 3.86 per cent of ash, 
while the average for the ten years from 1870 to 1880 
was as follows : 

0.754 per cent of ash in the fresh beets and 3.77 per cent of 
ash in the dry substance of the beets. 

This decrease of the non-sugars in the beets went on 
so that for the years from 1892 to 1894 the average was: 

0.578 per cent of ash in the fresh beets and 2.73 per cent of 
ash in the dry substance. 

Thus, in about two decades it was possible to diminish 
the ash content from 3.86 per cent to 2.73 per cent cal- 
culated on the dry substance of the beets, or 29 per cent 
of the total ash content . 

The conclusions to be drawn from the above data are, 
it seems to us, quite instructive. The object of sugar 
beet raising is in the first place the sugar which has 
been recognized as an important article of human diet. 
This should be kept in mind by the farmer. Everything 
that leads to the increase of sucrose in the beet is ad- 
vantageous not only for the sug?.r manufacturer but for * 
the farmer just as well. A beet grower who raises the 

27 



best, purest beets exhausts least his soil ; a farmer raising 
poor beets exhausts most his soil. Here the interests of 
sugar factory and beet grower are identical. This is also 
true in a large measure with regard to the tonnage. Gen- 
erally speaking medium-sized beets of, say, from one to 
iwo pounds usually give the best tonnage. Such beets 
have, as a rule, also higher sugar content and purity than 
large-sized beets. This natural identity of the interests 
can and should be promoted by all means at the command 
of the industry. If beets would be paid not flat rate, as is 
the case in many factories, but according to sugar per- 
centage and purity all parties concerned would be bene- 
fited alike, since a crop of high-grade beets takes the 
least amount of fertility from the soil and at the same 
time the manufacturer gets the best possible raw material 
for the production of sugar. If further the farmer would 
systematically be encouraged by prizes for beets of the 
best quality as well as for largest tonnage harvested and 
also be allowed to directly participate in the profits of 
the sugar companies, the means by which the European 
beet industry has reached its enormous size would prac- 
tically be completed. The same means would undoubt- 
edly have the most beneficial effect upon the American 
beet industry as far as tonnage and sugar percentage 
in the beet are concerned. Here, however, we are con- 
fronted with the momentous question as to whether the 
sugar percentage in the beet can still further be increased, 
or, to express it in other words : 

HAS THE SUGAR CONTENT IN THE BEET REACHED ITS 
UMIT ? 

Some writers are inclined to believe that such is the 
case. But is it ? Contrary to this opinion we do not think 
that this limit has been reached. Certain it is that 
forty years ago nobody would have dared to foretell 
that it would be possible to produce beets with a sugar 
percentage of from 20 to 25, which is now actually the 
case. Nor is this the limit. Nature finds means to pro- 
duce plants with low as well as with high content of car* 
bohydrates. The potato with 20 per cent of starch, wheat 
with 60 per cent, and rice with 70 per cent, as well as 
the oak, beech, pine and black poplar with 40, 45» 55 ^^^ 
63 per cent of cellulose respectively, may represent plants 

28 



with a considerable variation of starch and ceUuiose con- 
tent. Beets, potatoes and trees T Sugar, starch and cel- 
lulose I What relation have they to each other? Sugar, 
starch and cellulose, it is perfectly true, are physically 
quite different, chemically, however, they are closely re- 
lated to each other as can be seen from their formulas : 

Ci2 H22 On (Ce Hio Ob)"* (Cs Hio Oo)x 

Sucrose. Starch. Cellulose. 

They all are carbohydrates, they all consist of carbon, 
hydrogen and oxygen only, they all contain hydrogen and 
oxygen in the same proportion which we find in water, 
as well as six or a multiple of six atoms of carbon. 
When treated with dilute sulphuric acid they are con- 
verted into the same glucose, at least partly. This simply 
shows how far reaching is the analogy between sugar, 
starch and cellulose in chemical respect. The question 
as to where lies the limit of the sugar content in the beet 
could be answered more precisely if only physical and 
chemical conditions were involved. But in addition 
to these the rather complicated physiological functions in 
the beet must also be taken into consideration, which dif- 
fer, of course, in plants with various carbohydrates. 
However, it is perhaps reasonable to assume that as long 
as the sugar cannot crystallize out in the juices of the 
living beet plant its physiological functions may not seri- 
ously be interfered with. Which is, then, the solubility 
of sugar in water? At room temperature one part of 
water dissolves about two parts of sugar, the exact fig- 
ures being as follows : 

At deg. C 100 parts of water dissolve 179.2 parts of sugar. 
At 15 deg. C. 100 parts of water dissolve 197 parts of sugar. 

At 40 deg. C. 100 parts of water dissolve 238.1 parts of sugar. 

The temperatures 0° and 40° C. fairly represent the 
extreme temperatures to which the plant may be sub- 
jected during its growth, 15° C. being near to the average 
temperature. The least solubility of sugar in water is at 
0° C. at which temperature 1.79 parts of sugar saturate 
I part of water, representing a solution with 64 per cent 
sugar. This means that as .long as the sugar percentage 
is below 64, the sugar cannot crystallize out in the cells of 
the living plant. True, the beet juice is not a pure sugar 
solution ; it contains also salts and generally speaking non- 
sugars somewhat modifying the solubility of sugar in wa- 

29 



ter. Nor have other conditions been taken into consid- 
eration. But the above contemplation gives some sug- 
gestion that we have not by far arrived at the limit of 
the sugar content in the beet. 

We do not believe, of course, that with our present 
knowledge and means we shall ever get beets with, say 
50 or 60 per cent of sugar, and while it is an ungrateful 
task to be a prophet, we nevertheless do not hesitate in 
stating that the beets are still capable of being improved 
very essentially, provided strictly scientific methods will 
be applied. It was only after the fruitful ideas of the 
great Charles Darwin that plant breeding was taken up 
scientifically. Through such methods it was, for in- 
stance, possible to materially increase the starch content 
in potatoes, the protein content in corn, or at will to breed 
corn with high and low protein content. As far as the 
sugar beet is concerned its improvement in quality was 
practically accomplished in the last four ' decades. 
We know already (see page 5) that in 1872-3 
the sugar percentage extracted from beets in 
France was 5.70 and in Germany it was 7.93 for 
the year 1866-7. At present all sugar factories reject 
beets with less than 12 per cent sugar. Beets with a 
sugar content of from 14 to 18 are common and some 
factories are cutting beets, some of which have from 18 
to 20 per cent sucrose. Even beets with a sugar percent- 
age of from 20 to 25 are by no means very rare. Thus, 
the sugar percentage of the beets was trebled and can 
be said to have increased from one to two per cent per 
each decade. At the same time the purity rose from 65 
to 75 in the beets of olden times to as much as 80 to 90 in 
the beets of to-day. And if the improvement of the beet 
continues — which is reasonable to assume — we may ex- 
pect that in half a century the sugar beet will have, say, 
an average sugar percentage of 20 and a corresponding 
high purity. This is by no means out of the question re- 
calling the fact that through proper modes of selection 
and cultivation it was possible in the past to fix definite 
properties in the beets. So the leading beet seed growers 
succeeded in producing certain types, like the "Improved 
Vilmorin" with a high sugar content, the "Klein Wan- 
zlebener" with a large tonnage, the cross beet of these 

JO 



two types with both high sugar percentage and big ton- 
nage. Generally it was possible through prudent, ra- 
tional methods to treble the sugar content of the beets and 
to breed such with 20 to 25 per cent sugar and high purity 
and there is absolutely no reason why these qualities could 
not be fixed so as to make them common for the majority 
of the progenies through the above indicated means. 

Time does not allow us to go into details. But take, 
for example, the beet seed. The very choicest seed is 
none too good. A higher price for seed does not count 
here. Five cents more per pound of seed means a larger 
expense of only one dollar to the acre, but good seed in- 
sures more beets and better beets. The fact must be borne 
in mind that the present sugar beets of high sugar content 
and purity are the result of careful selective and cultural 
methods and originate from beets that are now justly 
called feed beets. There can be no question but that the 
ameUoration of the beet can and will go on still further to 
the advantage of both beet grower and sugar manufac- 
turer for many years to come. 

Now w^e wish to take up the other part of this publica- 
tion, namely the manufacture of sugar from beets. Inas- 
much as the modern sugar manufacturing process nowa- 
days represents quite a science, it is out of the question to 
deal Avith all its phases in a paper of this kind and it may 
be said right here that we are not going to announce any 
new great inventions or discoveries. After .all even in 
a modern mill all the processes, like the diffusion, defeca- 
tion, carbonatation, the Bock process (crystallization in 
motion) etc., are old, though gradually improved, pro- 
cesses known already for a number of decades. Our 
purpose is simply to lay down a number of observa- 
tions and practical experiences, made by us during a 
number of years, for the benefit of those connected with 
the beet sugar industry, and in doing so we shall in the 
following pages try to touch upon the most vital parts 
of the manufacturing process. We shall try to show 
how the capacity in a sugar mill can be increased, the 
sugar extraction improved, or how the most important 
calculations in a sugar mill can be performed in a sim- 
ple and easy manner. 

31 



THE CAPACITY OF A SUGAR MILL. 
The capacity of a mill and the sugar extraction are 
undoubtedly the two great focuses upon which all the 
thoughts of the managers and superintendents are natur- 
ally concentrated. Generally speaking all the care and 
work in a sugar house have or ought to have as their 
final objects: first, to cut as many beets as possible in 
24 hours (full capacity), second, to extract the maximum 
percentage of sugar from the beets (complete extrac- 
tion), third, to produce sugar of the highest quality, 
and to perform all these operations in the most economi- 
cal way. A mill in which all these purposes can be 
achieved is in a first class condition. But the achieve- 
ment of two of the objects named must be required of 
any management, if the sugar factory is to run with 
reasonable profit. The importance of full capacity can 
be illustrated by a simple calculation, and while the ex- 
penses in a small mill are comparatively greater than in 
a large one and conditions naturally change with the 
location and special circumstances in each sugar factory, 
the following figures may be considered as an approxi- 
mate statement for sugar works in this country. Let 
us take for this calculation, e. g., a sugar factory of 
600 tons daily capacity, cutting 50,000 tons of beets dur- 
ing a campaign of 85 days. The expenses are then in 
round figures as follows : 

85 da3'S X 200 people (including unloading and siloing 

beets) X $2.00 a shift $ 34,000 

18 

Coal (187a) =50,000 X X $2.75 24,750 

100 

Salaries of permanent employees per year 18,000 

Workmen outside of campaign : 10 people X 6 months X 

25 days X $1.75 2,025 

Amortisation (including interests) of capital: 450,000 X 

4% 18,000 

Sugar bags and barrels (including packing), about 20,000 

Repairing of machinery, apparatus, etc 8,000 

Lime rock, coke, oil, filter cloth, light, etc 20,000 

Taxes, insurance and general expenses 20,000 

Total $165,375 

$165,875 

Hence, according to this calculation it costs or $3.31 to 

50,000 
convert one ton of beets into marketable sugar. 

32 



^ The cost of sugar manufacture can be. calculated also 
in another way: Since i ton of beets furnishes ii per 
cent or 220 lbs., of sugar, we find that the cost of sugar 
$5.00 

in the raw material is = $2.27 per 100 lbs., on the 

2.20 
other hand the selling price is about $4.50 per 100 lbs. 
The balance of $2.23 represents the cost of production 
plus profit. Allowing from 10 to 15 per cent profit, we 
find that cost of production is about $1.60 per 100 lbs. 

220 
sugar or $1.60 X = $3.52 per ton of beets. 

100 
Consequently, on the average it costs about $3.40 to 
convert i ton of the raw sugar material into granulated. 
Now, if through inexpensive improvements and rational 
running of the mill its capacity can be raised, say 20 tons 
per shift or 40 tons in 24 hours, it would mean that in 
a campaign of 85 days duration, 3,400 tons of beets can 
be cut without cost, as the expenses for labor, coal, oil, 
etc., remain practically the same. These 3,400 tons of 
beets cut thanks merely to the raised capacity of the mill 
represent a higher net profit of 3,400 X $340 = $11,560. 
In discussing the question of how to increase the capac- 
ity of a sugar factory we have in mind a few simple and 
cheap means which can be applied in any sugar plant. 
Hence, the reconstruction of a whole sugar factory or 
even of a larger part of it is'be3'ond the frame of this pub- 
lication. In order to more intelligently grasp the ideas 
of how to raise the capacity of a sugar plant we must 
comprehend what the capacity of a mill really means, 
A sugar mill has actually a daily capacity of 600 tons 
when each and every department has this capacity, i, e., 
when the diffusion battery can extract the juice from 
600 tons of beets, the carbonators purify, the presses 
filter, the multiple effect evaporate and so forth. But, 
be it well understood, the capacity of a mill is not given 
by the average capacity of the various stations. If, for 
instance, the beet end has a capacity of 580 tons of beets 
and the sugar end one of 620 tons, the mill is not able 
daily to work up 600 tons of beets. The same holds 
true when the reverse is the case. The capacity of a. 
sugar factory is determined by its weakest department. 

23 



In case a mill has only one, two or even three of such 
stations it is, as a rule, not difficult and for economical 
reasons it is imperative to raise their capacity to the 
height of all the other stations. 

What is true of the mill as a whole holds good also 
for each separate department. The capacity of each 
department is fixed by its weakest part. For example, 
the speed of the juice circulation in a diffusion battery 
is given by its least velocity in an overheated or 
"plugged" cell. The speed with which the juice is trans- 
ported from one station to another is given by the pipe 
of the smallest diameter. Hence, if through a mistake 
or some other cause a 5 inch pipe line has one 
single pipe of 4 inch diameter, then the transportation 
of the juice in that line will practically take place with 
a velocity corresponding to a 4 inch line. 

While it is a rather easy matter to increase the capacity 
of a beet wheel, of a beet and pulp elevator by simply 
raising their speed or by increasing the number or size 
of the buckets, it is somewhat more complicated when 
we have to do with departments commencing with the 
diffusion battery down to the sugar end. 

THE DIFFUSION BATTERY. 

We do not have here in mind the increase of the capac- 
ity of the diffusion battery by adding two or more cells 
which is easily performed in a straight battery and with 
more difficulty accomplished in a circular one. K^or do we 
think of a change of the whole pipe system in a battery 
which change, when the pipe lines are not wide enough, 
is in some special cases very useful and even indispens- 
able. A consideration of the fact that a pipe system of 
7" diameter will caeteris paribus pass about twice as 
much juice than one of 5 inches shows at once the im- 
portance of a wide pipe system. Both remedies, how- 
ever, are expensive. A battery given in a sugar factory 
with the number of cells and the pipe system unchanged 
can be made to w^ork up more beets by some plain but 
nevertheless effective means. 

The capacity of a battery, just as it exists in the fac- 
tory, depends chiefly upon the velocity with which the 
raw juice is able to move in the cells. This again de- 
pends upon a number of conditions. In the first place 

34 



there are always gases in the battery retarding the cir- 
culation of the juices. Inasmuch as this question is of 
considerable importance and has not been fully treated 
even in such well-known books, like Dr. Claassen's 
"Zucker-Fabrikation," Stohmann's "Handbuch der Zuck- 
erfabrikation" and Dr. Stammer's "Lehrbuch der Zuck- 
erfabrikation," it is, it seems to us, worth while to longer 
dwell upon this subject. The gases mentioned accumu- 
late chiefly in the upper parts of the cells and heaters 
and have the tendency to stay there by virtue of their low 
specific gravity. It is obvious that they must constantly 
be a hindrance to the downward moving juices and in 
that way diminish the speed of circulation. This 
is the reason why it is necessary to prevent the forma- 
tion of gases in the battery and, when formed, to re- 
move them. Where do the gases come from ? First of 
all there is some air in the chips as well as a certain 
amount of carbon dioxide contained in the beet juice. 
These gases are always more or less to be found in a 
battery. More injurious or undesirable is the hydrogen 
produced through the chemical action of the slightly acid 
diffusion juice upon the iron sheets of the cells. The 
acid reaction of the raw juice is due to the presence of 
a number of organic acids or their salts naturally occur- 
ring in the beet juices, like the acids : glycolic, oxalic, 
malonic, succinic, malic, tartaric, citric and others. The 
above chemical action can be illustrated by the following 
equation : 

C,U,0, 4- Fe = C^FeO^ + H^ 

Oxalic Iron Iron 

acid (cell material) oxalate Hydrogen 

Hydrogen, together with carbon dioxide, can also be 
formed through the activity of bacteria coming into the 
cells mainly with dirt adhering to the beets. The micro- 
organisms cause fermentation of the raw juice, and as a 
consequence sugar is decomposed into organic acids un- 
der development of hydrogen and carbon dioxide. This 
decomposition represents very likely the butyric or lactic 
fermentation, as expressed by the following reactions : 

CeH^^Oe^ 2CO2 + CJip, + 2U, 

Glucose Carbon dioxide Butyric acid Hydrogen 

or: QHisOg = sCoHeOg 

Glucose Lactic acid, 

35 



and the lactic fermentation can then be converted into 
butyric fermentation as shown in the equation: 
2QH,03 = 2CO, + QH3O2 + 2H, 

Lactic acid Carbon dioxide Butyric acid Hydrogen. 

How, then, can these injurious gases be removed? In 
the first place it is wise to prevent the formation of the 
gases, and this can be done in a simple way. AH that 
is necessary is to paint the inside walls of the cells before 
the campaign starts. Covering with a coat of red lead 
is preferable to that of white lead since the latter is more 
easily attacked by the acids of the raw juice. Even 
covering with boiled oil' containing little paint will do 
some good. These means will in a large measure prevent 
the formation of hydrogen. More than that, they will 
prolong the life of the expensive diffusion battery two, 
three or more years. It is, therefore, to be regretted 
that there are a good many factories failing to make use 
of this preventive measure. The cost for paint and labor 
is not significant when compared with the benefits de- 
rived. 

Concerning the fermentation and gases due to biolog- 
ical processes it is best to prevent them by thoroughly 
removing the dirt from the beets in the washer and by 
using pure water for pressure in the battery. Where the 
beet washer is not large enough to thoroughly wash 
the beets, it is necessary to keep the raw juice hot in 
as many cells as possible. For this purpose it is best 
to make connections in the battery enabling one, when 
necessary, to divide it into two separate batteries which 
can be accomplished without any difificulties in a straight 
line battery. The high temperature in many cells will 
partly kill the microorganisms, partly reduce their activ- 
ity to a minimum. 

However, a certain amount of gas, chiefly air and 
carbon dioxide which has been in solution in the living 
cells of the beets, is always contained in the battery. 
One can most conveniently get rid of those gases through 
apparatus automatically removing the air and other 
gases from the upper parts of the heaters. Where such 
air removing apparatus are not present, we have found 
the following measure quite effective: On the air cock 
of each cell a bucket is allowed to hang. The boy as- 
sisting the battery man goes along the cells and opens 

36 



once in a while the air cocks one after another. Each 
cock is kept open until all the gas is removed and juice 
begins to flow, when the cock is immediately to be closed. 
Then the next cock is opened and so forth. 

In mashing the cell containing fresh chips with juice 
from the preceding cell, it is of some advantage to per- 
form two-thirds or more of the mashing with open lid, 
and to close it only at the end of this operation. That 
way the air flows out somewhat more rapidly and thus 
the operation of mashing is accelerated in some degree. 

With a good strong screen, having a maximum free 
passage, at the bottom of each cell— which is exceedingly 
important — and with the gases removed, the speed of the 
juice circulation in a battery depends solely upon the 
available water pressure on the one hand and the contra- 
pressure on the other. As far as pressure is concerned 
it is best to have such from a tower tank. If this is not 
to be had, then a centrifugal pump is preferable to a 
piston pump. In the first two cases the water pressure 
is more uniform and constant than in the last named 
case. For a number of reasons the pressure must not 
be too high, say, not more than from 14 to 18 lbs., per 
square inch. But the contra-pressure from the measur- 
ing tanks can be changed practically at will. In a good 
many factories the diffusion measuring tanks are placed 
in such a way that their bottom is above the diffusion 
battery, the only advantage being that the raw juice can 
flow from these tanks into the carbonators through nat- 
ural gravity. But it is evident that the contra-pressure 
from the measuring tanks retards the juice circulation 
in the cells, in other words it diminishes the working 
capacity of the battery. Wherever this arrangement is 
to be fouad, it should unhesitatingly be changed. This 
can be done in two ways : either the measuring tanks are 
lowered to the level of the diffusion battery wdiich re- 
quires then a circulation pump to transport the raw 
juice from the measuring tanks to the carbonators, usu- 
ally through calorisators, or the measuring tanks are left 
where they are and between them and the diffusion 
battery a centrifugal pump is placed which pumps the 
juice from the battery into the measuring tanks. While 
both arrangements will accelerate the work in the battery, 
the last mentioned scheme is more effective and to be 

Z7 



preferred the reason being that in the latter case there 
is in the battery pressure from one side and suction from 
the other. This double action considerably increases 
the speed of the juice in the battery. We know of cases 
in the practice where the daily capacity of the battery 
was increased through that arrangement from 30 to 50 
tons of beets and more. The dimensions of the pump 
to be placed between battery and measuring tanks can 
easily be calculated when we know the work it has to do. 
The draw per one ton of beets is about 10 hectoliters raw 
juice. In a mill of, say, 600 tons daily capacity there 
are produced in 24 hours 6,000 hectoliters which the 
pump must transport from the battery to the measuring 
tanks. In other words, the pump must have a capacity 
6000 

of = 4.17 hectoliters per minute. It is good to 

24X60 

take the pump from 10 to 20 per cent stronger than the 
theory requires. 

But one more fact, and one of considerable value, we 
should like to mention in connection with the battery. 
It is of paramount importance to fill each cell with chips 
to its utmost capacity. It is not right to start packing the 
chips with a stick when the cell is already full. This 
operation should begin as soon as the cell is more than 
half full and should last without interruption up to the 
last moment when the cell is quite full. The packing 
should be done by a powerful man by means of a stick 
strong and long enough to reach deep into the cell. The 
great importance of this manipulation can be seen from 
the following consideration : The difference between a 
well and negligently packed cell is from a quarter to 
half a ton of cossettes and more ; the larger the volume 
of the cells, the greater is this difference. By careful 
packing it is in many factories within reach to fill into 
each cell on the average a quarter of a ton chips more 
than is now the case. By working up 160 cells in 24 
hours it will be possible to cut 40 tons of beets more. 
For a campaign of 90 days it makes 4oX90 = 3,(x)0 
tons of beets. The conversion of the 3,600 tons of beets 
into sugar does not cost the factory a cent ! Cost for 
labor, fuel, lime rock, coke, etc., remains practically the 

38 



same whether the cells are packed or not. More than 
that: through careful packing the diffusion juice is 
more concentrated, has a higher purity and the circula- 
tion is also somewhat improved. All the above recom- 
mended means, simple and inexpensive as they are, allow 
to reach the maximum capacity in a diffusion battery, 

THE CARBONATORS. 

From the standpoint of the capacity of a sugar mill 
it does not make any dift'erence whether there are lo 
carbonators of 700 cu. ft. or 7 carbonators of 1,000 cu. 
ft. each and so forth. With proper arrangements for 
heating and saturating the juices wdth gas, it is the total 
volume of all carbonators that counts, although it is ad- 
mitted that the larger carbonators are more convenient 
for mills of great capacity and are also better adapted 
for some operations to be performed in them. Generally 
speaking, the capacity of the carbonators, as well as of 
any other department in a sugar plant, is determined by 
the total volume of the carbonators, or any other ap- 
paratus, and by the energy of the forces active in the 
apparatus in question. Let us illustrate this by examples. 
Of two carbonator stations with the same total volume 
and with the same heating surface and gas arrangement. 
the one having hotter steam or gas richer in carbon 
dioxide has a higher capacity, i. e., it is able to work 
up more juice, hence more beets, than the other one. Of 
two filter press departments of the same type and with 
the same arrangements for inlet and outlet of juice, water 
and steam, the one having a larger total surface of filtra- 
tion has a higher working capacity. What is true of the 
carbonators and filter presses holds good also for other 
departments. Since the carbonators represent compara- 
tively plain and cheap apparatus, it follows from the 
above contemplations that a simple way to raise their 
working capacity is to increase their total volume. This 
can be done by adding one, two or more carbonators 
to those already present in the mill, provided there is 
space enough on the carbonator floor. Better and more 
practicable in many factories is the increase of the height 
of the carbonators. This latter means applied by the 
writer in some factories. proved to be always effective and 
useful. Ordinarily the gas engine is strong enough to 
overcome the increased pressure of the juice in the car- 

39 _ . 



bonators. The latter way is not only cheaper, but also 
of greater benefit^ since it allows a better utilization of 
the saturation gas which is the more completely absorbed, 
the longer it is in contact with the alkaline juice, and this 
is the more the case the higher the carbonators are. This 
is especially important in factories where the lime kiln 
and gas engine are not very strong. It also saves a lot 
of sugar when the space above the juice is large enough, 
at the same time enabling one to reduce the use of tallow 
and oil against foaming to a minimum. The question 
arises how large should the carbonators be and what 
should be the capacity of the carbonator station per one 
ton of beets sliced ? It is not possible to give a standard 
measure for all factories, since the necessary carbonator 
space changes with a number of conditions. Sound, ripe 
beets give a diffusion juice which is easily defecated 
and carbonated. Unripe beets or such raised on heavily 
manured soils cause considerable difficulties at the car- 
bonatation. For this reason the first mentioned beets re- 
quire less carbonator space. Mills having at their dis- 
posal a gas rich in COo need a smaller carbonator space 
than those having poor gas for saturation and so forth. 
But let us take actual dimensions of carbonator stations 
in sugar mills both in the east and in tlie west. With 
only one exception, the measurements of the carbonators 
— as well as of other apparatus given in this publication 
— were carefully verified and are contained in the fol- 
lowing table : 



Sugar Factory. 


No.l 


No. 2 


No. 3 


No. 4 


Daily capacity 

Volume of each car- 1 

bonator . ) 

Total volume of all 

(1st and 2nd) car- 


600 tons 
1,006 cu. ft. 

7,042 cu. ft. 
11.7 cu. ft. 


475 tons 
841 cu ft. 

8,410 en. ft. 
17.7 cu. ft. 


600 tons 
1,072 cu. ft. 

8,576 cu. ft. 
14.3 cu. ft. 


4;0 tons 

/1st carb. 779.5 cu 
12d carb. 517.4 cu 

5,449.7 cu. ft. 
12.1 cu. ft. 


.ft 

.ft 


Caronator volume per 
1 ton beets sliced . . . 





The height of the carbonators in different, as well as 
in the same, mills ranged from 12' to ig'6'\ Thus we 
see that the sizes of the carbonators, as well as the space 
per each ton of beets cut, differ considerably. But it is 
worthy of note that while the carbonator space in mill 
No. 2 was quite liberal, the carbonator departments in 
the mills Nos. i and 4 were among the iveahest and caused 



40 



some trouble during the campaign. This indicates that 12 
cu. ft. of carbonator space per one ton of beets sliced are 
hardly sufficient under ordinary circumstances. Consid- 
ering that raising the height of a carbonator from 12' to, 
say, 15' or 18' increases its capacity 25 or 50 per cent 
and that this change can cheaply and easily be accom- 
plished in very many cases, since the heating coils and 
gas pipes can mostly remain unchanged, it is not too much 
to say that a sugar factory with a weak carbonator de- 
partment should not hesitate to make use of this remedy. 

FILTER PRESSES. 

As far as capacity of the filter presses is concerned it is 
immaterial whether a mill has, say, eight presses of 900 
sq. ft. of filtering surface each, or sixteen presses of 450 
sq. ft., etc. And while length and width of the plates and 
frames usually range from 24 to 40 inches, the dimen- 
sions 30" by 30" being very common, it is quite natural 
that a mill with a large daily capacity will prefer presses 
of larger dimensions for the sake of saving some labor. 

With presses of a good type and with proper arrange- 
ments for inlet and outlet of steam, juice and water it is 
only the total surface of filtration that counts. How 
much surface of filtration is necessary for each ton of 
beets cut is a question that is rather hard to answer. The 
surface of filtration needed changes with the quality of 
the beets, with the care of the work at the stations pre- 
ceding the presses, with the quality of the filter cloth, 
etc. The better the beets, the more careful the work at 
the diffusion battery, at the defecation and carbonation 
tanks and the better the filtering material, the less surface 
of filtration is needed, and vice versa. How considerably 
the surface of filtration changes in various mills can be 
seen from the following table : 

Sugar Factory. No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 

Daily capacity 600 475 600 450 Tons 

Surface of filtration of 1st filter presses . 4,7.1 3,500 5,335 1.9^0 Sq.ft. 

Surfaceof filtration of 2d filter presses. 2,365 2,000 2,1?A 965 Sq.ft. 

Surface of filtration of all filter presses . 7,036 5,i00 7,469 2.895 Sq.ft. 
Surface of filtration per each ton of 

beets cut 11.8 11.6 12.4 6.4 Sq.ft. 

It is noteworthy that the factory No. 4 with the small- 
est surface of filtration has not quite been able to work 

..41 



up 450 tons of beets in 24 hours, and this in spite of a 
good beet material and fair juices. In the other mills 
the filter press stations proved to be adequate for the 
work to be done. It is, then, safe to say that 6 or 7 
sq. ft. of surface of filtration per each ton of beets sliced 
are not sufficient under ordinary conditions. 

Since the surface of filtration is given by the number 
of filter presses and by the number of plates in each 
press, it is evident that, if the press station is not strong 
enough in proportion to the other stations, its capacity 
can be increased either by adding one, two or more 
presses, if there is space enough, or by increasing the 
number of plates (and frames) in each of the presses, 
provided their construction allows to do so. Just to how 
much the increase of the surface of filtration amounts 
can easily be calculated in each case. 

THE EVAPORATORS. 

The multiple effect evaporators belong to the most 
complicated and most expensive apparatus in a sugar 
mill. They are, therefore, usually built comparatively 
strong in proportion to other stations, just as the ca- 
pacity of the sugar end will mostly be found greater 
than that of the beet end. However, in factories where 
the departments Of the beet end have been improved and 
increased for several years it may happen that the evap- 
orators will no longer be adequate for the work to be 
done. Not intending to discuss the addition of a body 
proper — which is quite expensive and circumstantial— 
the capacity of the multiple effect can be increased 
through a circulator, Pauly's "Saftkocher" (Juice 
Heater) or by adding a number of heating tubes in each 
body. The simplest means is perhaps the addition of 
a so-called circulator representing a very small evaporator 
heated with live steam and connected with the top and 
bottom of the first evaporating body proper. Where the 
front and back plates of the various bodies have not 
been fully utilized and there is still space for boring new 
holes, the addition of a number of heating tubes to be 
put into the new borings will increase their evaporating 
capacity according to the number of tubes added. The 
insertion in the multiple effect of the so-called Pauly's 
"Saftkocher" — a standing evaporator heated with live 

42 



steam and having in the vapor chamber a pressure up 
to 15 pounds or about 120° C. — is very effective. This 
apparatus is used extensively in Germany and is very 
useful where considerable increase of the capacity of 
the multiple effect is indispensable and where there is not 
enough exhaust steam for heating the first effect. 

Just how much heating surface is necessary for each 
ton of beets sliced cannot be answered precisely since 
it varies with the conditions. All the other things being 
equal, the heating surface needed is the smaller, the bet- 
ter the beets, the purer the juices, the more carefully 
the evaporation is conducted, the better the heating tubes 
transmit the heat and so forth. For instance, heating 
tubes of copper transmit the heat better than such of 
brass, and the latter are superior to tubes of iron or 
steel. Again, the evaporation will be more successful 
and, hence, require less heating surface, the more com- 
pletely the condensed water is removed from the heat- 
ing tubes and the faster the air and gases are removed 
from the chambers. Some idea as to the heating surface 
needed may be gained from the following table : 
Sugar Factory. No. 1 No. 2 No. 4 No. 5 

Daily capacity. 600 475 450 450 tons 

Type . . Quintuple Quadruple Quadruple Quadruple 

effect effect effect effect with 

Circulator. 
Heating sur- 
face of all 

effects 19.488 14,067 10,783 10,000 sq. ft. 

Heating sur- 
face per 1 
• ton beets 
sliced : 32.4 29.6 24.0 22.2 sq. ft. 

As a matter of fact, the mill No. 5 could not success- 
fully evaporate the juice with the heating surface avail- 
able and had to add a circulator to somewhat increase the 
capacity of the multiple effect. On the other hand the 
heating surface in the mill No. i was quite strong so 
that the heating tubes were not covered wnth juice for 
a number of days during the campaign. The heating 
surface needed lies, then, between these two extremes. 

If the increase of the heating surface by the means 
recommended is not possible, say, for lack of space or 
not desirable for whatever reason, the following reme- 
dies will prove quite effective: the use of hotter steam in 

43 



the first body and keeping- the juice stand in all bodies 
ast low as possible. If the exhaust steam heating the 
first body has, e. g., 5 pounds pressure, then an increase 
of its pressure up to 8 or 10 pounds will essentially in- 
crease the capacity of the multiple effect. Because, other 
things being equal, the juice evaporates the faster, the 
greater is the Temperaturgefdlle, i. e., the difference in 
temperature between the heating steam and the evaporat- 
ing juice. It is admitted, however, that in this latter case, 
by virtue of the higher back pressure the work of the 
engines will not be as economical as it would with 
lower pressure of the exhaust steam. 

Keeping the level of the juice in the bodies low, ma- 
terially increases their evaporating capacity, although 
this plain and always applicable means is very often neg- 
lected in sugar factories. The effectiveness of this rem- 
edy will be better comprehended by remembering that 
the boiling point is the lower the smaller the height of 
the juice in the effects, in which case the "Temperaturge- 
falle" (change in gradient) will be greatest, which, as 
we have seen, means faster evaporation. 

It is hardly necessary to mention the fact that heating 
tubes free of scale do more effective work. In order to 
remove the scale some factories boil out the evaporators 
first with muriatic acid and then with soda, others per- 
form these operations in the reversed order. Which is 
right? The scale in the evaporators consists of lime in 
combination with carbon dioxide, organic acids, sulphuric 
acid, etc. The muriatic acid as it is used for the evap- 
orators — not more than half per cent strength — is able 
to completely dissolve or to destroy the carbonate of lime 
only. It is, therefore, better to boil out the evaporators 
first with soda which converts all the salts named into 
carbonate of lime, and then to boil out with muriatic 
acid. Boiling out with bisulphate alone renders also 
good services. 

THE VACUUM PANS. 

For regular work in a sugar mill it is necessary to have 
at least one vacuum pan for boiling the first meladas and 
another pan for the second massecuites. A modern 
vacuum pan is so expensive and usually constructed in 
such considerable sizes that the addition of one more 

44 



pan is not often practiced. Usually they are built of 
such dimensions and with such heating surface as to be 
fully adequate for the work required. 

What was said of the evaporators with regard to steam 
and material of the heating tubes holds also good for 
the vacuum pans. Copper and brass coils transmit the 
heat better than those of steel and iron. And while high 
and low pressure steam have practically the same amount 
of heat they differ considerably in temperature. In-as- 
much as the higher temperature of the heating steam 
increases the "Temperaturgefalle" and, hence the speed 
with which the water of the thick liquor can be evap- 
orated, the application of high pressure steam in the 
vacuum pan means an increase of its capacity. Another 
although indirect means to make the pans adequate for 
the work in case of emergency is to evaporate the juices 
in the multiple effect to a high Brix, say to from 60 to 
70° Bx. On the other hand, if the vacuum pan is 
stronger in proportion than the evaporators, then the 
thick juice from the last body may be pumped out as 
soon as it has about 50° Bx. A part of the evaporation 
will be then done in the vacuum pan, although the fact 
must be taken into consideration that the evaporation 
in the vacuum pan means higher coal consumption, since 
the live steam is utilized in the pan only once, whereas 
in the multiple effect the steam is utilized four or five 
times. Careful steaming out of the pan after each strike 
keeps the heating coils clean whereby the transmission 
of the heat through the coils is kept at its maximum. A 
good experienced sugar boiler knows how to appreciate 
these means. ' 

However, once in awhile during the campaign it hap- 
p^Lis that the meladas in the pan "do not boil." As a 
consequence the whole mill is "up against the pan" and 
the capacity is thus impaired It is usually the case either 
at the start of the campaign when unripe beets are 
worked or at the end of the campaign when a part of 
the sliced beets are spoiled. The difficult boiling of the 
thick liquors from such beets is caused primarily through 
pectin substances and lime salts combined with organic 
acids. As soon as difficult boiling has been noticed, it 
will be found useful — in addition to careful extraction, 

-45 



defecation and carbonatation — to treat the thin juice with 
sal soda, converting those lime salts into carbonate of 
lime which is filtered out. The juices so treated boil 
then much better, especially when the alkalinity of the 
thick liquor is kept low, not above o.oi. 

That dry or overheated steam should never be used for 
heating purposes at the vacuum pans or elsewhere, since 
it is a poor conductor of heat, we wish here to mention 
for the reason that such steam is sometimes wrongly ap- 
plied in the vacuum pans and other stations. 

THE CENTRIFUGAL MACHINES. 

As far as the centrifugals are concerned, their ca- 
pacity increases with their radius, with the quantity of 
the spinning massecuite and with the square of the num- 
ber of revolutions they make in a minute, no matter 
whether they are driven by water, steam or electricity. 
From the above it follows that the velocity has consid- 
erable influence upon the capacity of a machine and it 
makes quite a difference whether a centrifugal makes 
I, GOO or 1,200 revolutions in a minute. A simple cal- 
culation shows that, all the other conditions being equal, 
10 machines making 1,200 revolutions are able to work 
up as much massecuite as 14 machines running with a 
speed of 1,000 revolutions in a minute. While it is not 
possible in the practice to keep a centrifugal running all 
the time with a speed of 1,200 revolutions, the above 
data suggests that care should be taken to keep the speed 
of the centrifugals as near to the upper limit as possible. 
Sliding of the belts has here considerable bearing. 

The machines mostly used in the sugar factories in 
this country are Weston centrifugals of 30, 36 and 40- 
inch diameter, although the 40-inch machines of the 
belt-driven type are usually preferred to the other types 
and sizes. The number of centrifugals necessary for 
each factory somewhat changes with quality and tem- 
perature of the meladas to be spun, with the amount of 
syrup or water added to the mixers, and so forth. 
Usually one 40-inch machine is able to spin the meladas 
obtained from 50 to 60 tons ai beets, hence ten such 
machines are needed for a mill having a daily capacity of 
from 500 to 600 tons of beets. Factories of this capacity 
have either 5 centrifugals for first meladas and 5 for 
second meladas, or 6 machines for firsts and 4 for sec- 

' 46 



onds, although the reverse is the scheme to be preferred, 
namely 6 machines for second (and third) massecuites 
and 4 for white massecuites. With the number of 
machines their size and speed given, their capacity is then 
properly speaking, fixed. We should like, however, to 
call attention to one remedy which improves the work 
of the centrifugals and one that was used by the writer 
in a number of factories with success. It is the appli- 
cation of steam between jacket and basket, especially for 
second and third jfillmasses. A small steam pipe of, say, 
half-inch diameter with small openings directed against 
the basket, keeps the melada warm, the molasses con- 
tained in the melada in a less viscous state. That way 
the molasses is more easily separated from the crystals 
so that the time of spinning can be reduced. If the steam 
is free of water or is made dry by directing it against 
a piece of flat iron (inserted between jacket and basket) 
and not directly against the basket, then the dissolution 
of sugar by the steam is practically out of the question: 
it is not the water, it is the heat of the steam that \i 
needed here. 

SUGAR EXTRACTION. 

It goes without saying that sugar is produced in the 
beets while they are still in the soil. As soon as they 
have been dug out, sugar losses are liable to occur 
through decomposition of the sucrose. The fact that 
siloed beets often show a higher sugar content than the 
corresponding fresh beets does not stand in any contra- 
diction to the above statement. It is only the sugar per- 
centage that has increased, absolutely the sugar de- 
creases in siloed beets as it does in beets under other 
conditions, when out of the soil. In other words, the 
weight of the siloed beets multiplied by their average 
sugar percentage gives a figure smaller than the one 
obtained through multiplication of the weight of the 
fresh beets by their sugar content. The problem of the 
sugar factory is, then, merely to extract the sugar from 
the beets as completely as possible, carefully avoiding 
any unnecessary sugar losses. While the diffusion 
battery is the department where the sugar extraction 
takes place, the other stations commencing with the car- 
bonators down to the vacuum pan have as their object 
the purification, filtration and evaporation of the raw 

47 



juices obtained in the diffusion battery. Inasmuch as the 
purification of the juices materially increases the yield 
of sugar, it is convenient to deal at the same time .with 
both sugar extraction and epuration. As far as sugar 
extraction in the diffusion battery is concerned it depends 
upon four conditions : temperature, state of the chips, 
percentage of draw and duration of the extraction. While 
the cells in a long battery with, say, 14 diffusors are 
emptied every 5 to 7 minutes, the change of the cells 
in a short battery with about 8 large cells takes place at 
greater intervals, namely in 10 to 12 minutes. With the 
number of cells given in a battery, whatever its type, it 
would not be wise to prolong the time of extraction in 
order to better exhaust the cossettes, since in this case 
the capacity of the battery would be impaired. Only in 
one case, namely when the battery is stronger than the 
other stations, can the extraction take place somewhat 
slower for the purpose of obtaining a better yield of 
sugar. 

Of the other means, the "draw," or the percentage of 
juice to be drawn from a cell, is the most expensive and 
least economical one, since larger draw means higher coal 
expenses, more work in the carbonators, filter presses and 
evaporators, hence decrease of the capacity of the mill. 
We m^ost emphatically wish to lay stress upon all those 
disadvantages in view of the fact that in many sugar 
factories the people like to make frequent use of this 
means and to regulate the sugar content of the pulp by 
the draw rather than by temperature and size of the 
chips, simply because it is so much more convenient to 
do so than to strictly observe the temperature in the 
heaters or to take care that the sheer s should give the 
right kind of cuttings. While the draft can change 
within 100 to 120 per cent and more, calculated on the 
weight of the beets, it should be borne in mind that a 
minimum of draw corresponds to the highest economy 
in work. At the beginning of the campaign careful ob- 
servations must be made so as tO' find out the percentage 
of draft that is most economical for both sugar extrac- 
tion and capacity of the mill. Once stated, the dravv^ 
ought to be kept so for a while, and should not be 
changed often as is practiced in some factories. Uniform 

48 



work in the diffusion battery, as well as throughout the 
mill, should be the underlying principle. When raw juice 
of uniform concentration is pumped into the measuring 
tanks, the carbonator man knows what he will get into 
his carbonators. As a consequence the operations of heat- 
ing, treating with lime and gas can be performed more 
intelligently and uniformly. 

The regulation of the temperature in a battery is a 
very effective way to accomplish a good extraction of 
the sugar from the beets. With ripe, sound beets the 
temperature in the battery can be kept as high as 80° C. 
and even two or three degrees higher. When it is not 
possible to. exhaust the cossettes far enough with this 
temperature, it is advisable to keep two or three more 
cells hot rather than to raise still farther the above men- 
tioned temperature which would render the chips soft 
and thus impair the circulation in the battery. 

The most economic and prudent means to achieve a 
satisfactory sugar extraction will always be found in 
good chips. It is perfectly true that this means requires 
more care than the others, especially at the start of the 
campaign. But once well organized, it does not require 
appreciably more time and expenses to obtain good chips 
than it takes to get poor ones. In order to get as com- 
plete an extraction as possible the chips should be fine 
enough and above all uniform. While the thickness of 
the chips usually ranges from two to three or four mil- 
limeters and while it is naturally easier to exhaust finer 
cuttings than thickfer ones, their fineness is limited by 
the fact that too fine chips retard the circulation in the 
battery. For this reason the chips must necessarily be 
the thicker, the larger the cells. Uniform cuttings, how- 
ever, are always useful. They can and should be applied 
in batteries of any type, for the following reason : When 
the cells contain cuttings of two different sizes, the thin- 
ner cuttings will be sooner exhausted than the thicker 
ones. There remains, then, the dilemma either to dump 
the pulp with a comparatively high average sugar con- 
tent, or to continue the diffusion in which case a con- 
siderable portion of non-sugars will be extracted from 
the thin chips. Consequently, it is only with uniform 

49 



chips that a good exhaustion of their sugar and at the 
same time a purer raw juice can be obtained. A few rules 
enable one to get good, uniform cuttings : 

1. The same t)^pe of blocks and knives, at least for a 
certain period, ought to be used. 

2. The knives should be sharp, and put into the blocks 
as uniformly as possible, and — what is essential — the dis- 
tance between knife and "Vorlage" (Receiver) as well as 
the height of the knives above the "Vorlage" (Receiver) 
must be in all blocks the same. 

3. The funnel above the slicing machine should be full 
to the top, and never less than two-thirds full, the beet 
elevator is to be regulated accordingly. In case the 
funnel does not contain enough beets so that there is not 
sufficient weight on the slicer, the beets slip on the knives 
and as a consequence mash is formed instead of regular 
chips. 

4. Good chips are not supposed to contain the so-called 
"hands," or at least the latter should be limited to a 
minimum. Such hands are usually formed when ribs in 
the knives are broken. Such knives ought to be replaced 
by good ones without delay. 

5. As soon as the knives have been damaged through 
stones, bolts or equally hard objects, the cutter must be 
stopped immediately, the damaged knives taken out and 
replaced by new ones. 

6. If the knives do not give satisfactory chips on ac- 
count of being plugged up through straw, grass, etc., 
the foreign matter should be removed, e. g. by means 
of the pointed ends of old files, after which the same 
knives can be used again. This latter operation should 
be performed each time after the slicer has cut beets for 
two or three cells. When there are two cutting machines, 
— which is the case with the modern sugar factories — 
care should be taken that while the one machine is cut- 
ting beets, the other one should be cleaned, provided 
with good, sharp knives, etc., and brought into action 
as soon as the chips coming from the first machine are 
no longer satisfactory. 

Hardly any factory will endeavor to exhaust the pulp 
beyond 0.25 per cent of sugar, which is neither economi- 
cal nor easy to accomplish. An average sugar per- 
centage of 0.3 to 0.4 can be considered as fair work. 

50 



Since the chemical purification of the raw juice is 
perhaps the most important of all operations in a sugar 
factory, it may be worth while to treat it here somewhat 
more rigorously than the other processes. This is all the 
more justified that in the textbooks dealing with sugar 
manufacture we usually find that so and so much lime and 
certain temperatures are to be applied in the carbonators, 
but no adequate explanation of the chemical phenomena 
involved is given. 

The chemical epuration of the diffusion juice is per- 
formed mainly by means of lime and heat and has the 
following effects : 

1. Neutralization of the acids and acid salts naturally 
occurring in the beets. The neutralization is primarily 
necessary to prevent inversion of sucrose. 

2. Precipitation of some nonrsugars, like the acids : 
carbonic, phosphoric, oxalic, malic and others. 

3. Coagulation of proteins, due to the heat applied in 
the carbonators, 

4. Removal of coloring matter. 

5. Removal of. ammonia from some non-sugars, e. g. 
from asparagine and glutamine. For instance, 

COOH. NH,. CH. CH„. CONR,. + H,0 = 
Asparagine Water 

COOH. NH^. CH. CH,. COOH -f NH3. 

Aspartic acid Ammonia. 

6. Mechanical precipitation of suspended foreign mat- 
ter. 

7. Sterilization of the juice for protection against the 
action of microorganisms and germs. 

That the chemically purified juice is more easily fil- 
tered, evaporatet4 and worked generally speaking, is 
too well known to be treated here. What temperature 
and how much lime should be used in the carbonators? 
The answer to this question we can give by considering 
the purposes they have to accomplish. A good many pro- 
teins coagulate only at a temperature of 85° C. ; the col- 
oring substances combine partly with the proteins ; am- 
monia is the more removed from the organic nitrogenous 
bodies (from asparagine, etc.), the higher the tempera- 
ture which is also favorable for enveloping the foreign 
matter. On the other hand it is very hard, if at all pos- 
sible, to boil the treated juices in the first carbonators. 

SI 



So that the above data point to the necessity of keeping 
the temperature in the carbonators at from 85 to 100' C. 
In the first carbonators which react violently when very 
hot, the juice should be heated to from 85 to 90° C. after 
the saturation has taken place at 75 to 85° C. In the 
second carbonators, however, the treated juice can be 
heated up to 95 or 100° C. 

It may be mentioned here that large carbonators are 
preferable to small ones inasmuch as it takes more time 
to heat up the juice and treat it with gas. As a conse- 
quence there is more time and hence better chance for the 
performance of the processes of coagulation (proteins), 
precipitation (lime salts), destruction of non-sugars 
(amides, amino acids, etc.), enveloping of the foreign 
matter — advantages that are not to be underestimated. 

If lime were to be used only for neutralization of the 
acids, then the amount to be applied would be exceedingly 
small. Sound beets contain a juice locc of which can 
be neutralized with 3 to about /cc of "factory alkali," the 
strength of which corresponds to the strength of "factory 
acid." This means that 0.05 per cent of lime are suf- 
ficient to neutralize the acids in the diffusion juice. The 
amount of lime needed to precipitate some non-sugars, as 
lime salts and to destroy other non-sugars is probably 
just as much or a trifle more. However, o.i to 0.2 per 
cent lime added to the diffusion juice does not give a 
full defecation of the juice which in addition filters very 
slowly. The least amount of lime necessary to get juice 
which is easily filtered, is about 1J/2 per cent. An amount 
of 2 to 2^ per cent of lime calculated on the weight of 
the beets is certainly sufficient in all cases. Factories 
using for sound beets above this percentage are simply 
wasting lime, to say nothing of other disadvantages. 

In this connection we should like to call attention to 
the fact that it is useful to run acidity determinations of 
the diffusion juice, most conveniently by means of an 
alkali which we propose to call "factory alkali," since 
ICC of it neutralizes icc of factory acid. The diffusion 
juice is for these titrations to be diluted with distilled 
water. And yet, strange as it is, there is hardly a sugar 
factory in this country requiring of the chemists to reg- 
ularly determine the acidity of the raw juice. The addi- 

52 



tion in the beet end sheets of the cokimn : "Acidity of 
diffusion juice" would not appreciably burden the labora- 
tory work. The writer's observations convinced him that 
as long as the acidity runs from 0.03 to 0.06 or 0.07 the 
beets are sound. A further rise of the acidity to say, 
o.io and above, is a sure sign that some rotten beets are 
coming- into the factory. It is then, and only then, that 
application of more than 23^ per cent of lime would be 
advisable. 

When the juice in the carbonators foams heavily and 
the carbonators are not large enough, there is loss of 
juice through the big vapor pipes of the carbonators. 
Such juice can be saved by constructing on the roof at the 
highest points of those pipes a somewhat inclined wooden 
trough fitted inside with galvanized iron. The upper 
ends of the vapor pipes fitted into the bottom of the 
trough are on the same level with this bottom. A small 
pipe with valve from the lowest point of the trough will 
bring the overboiling juice back to any station of the 
mill, most conveniently to the carbonators. Such a trough 
costs twenty or thirty dollars or so, and saves lots of 
sugar. 

As the sugar remaining in the press cakes represents 
a considerable item among the losses that are unavoidable 
in the sugar manufacturing process, it is but natural that 
the filter press station requires considerable attention. In 
the first place, good diffusion juice, carefully treated in 
the carbonators with properly burned lime from high- 
grade lime stone, gives always a saturation juice that is 
easily filtered and sweetened out. That before coming into 
the presses, the juice must pass through an adequate stone 
catcher, we wish only to mention. The cardinal point to 
be emphasized here is that the formation of the lime 
cakes in the presses as well as the sweetening out with 
water should take place as uniformly as possible. This 
can be achieved in such a way that the juice from the car- 
bonators is forced not directly into the presses but into 
a reservoir placed high enough above the presses from 
which reservoir the juice runs through natural gravity 
into the filter presses. The pressure being always prac- 
tically equal, the cakes formed are of uniform size. 
Again, the water used for sweetening out the cakes 
ghoiild also be pumped into a tank above the presses to 

■53 



have a uniform water pressure in the filter presses. If, 
however, a pump is used for forcing the water into the 
presses, then stress is to be laid upon starting the pump at 
the outset as gently as possible. That way the water finds 
its way along all the channels formed in the cakes, uni- 
formly penetrating them. And as soon as the water ap- 
pears from the cocks, the pump may be run faster. How 
much water is to be used has to be found out at the 
start of the campaign through analysis of the lime cakes. 
Their continuous chemical control as to their sugar con- 
tent will then be a sure guide for the filter press foreman. 
If in spite of all the care in the presses, the cakes show 
a high sugar percentage, it is reasonable to assume that 
the cakes contain sugar in chemical combination with 
lime, i. e., as saccharate. This should without delay be 
stated by running two sugar determinations of the cake : 
the usual one by means of acetic acid or ammonium ni- 
trate will give the total sugar percentage, and the other 
method consisting simply in extracting the cake with 
water will give the sugar mechanically contained in the 
cake as juice. The result of this second determination 
subtracted from the first one gives the percentage of 
sugar in the shape of saccharates. If the percentage of 
the saccharates is considerable, the work in the carbon- 
ators must be changed so as to decompose the saccharates 
into sugar and lime. A sugar content of one per cent 
in the cakes of the first presses can be considered as fairly 
good work, the cakes of the second presses usually con- 
tain very little sugar, often none. 

Concerning the cakes in the thick liquor presses as 
well as the slime in mechanical filters we wish to remind 
that their throwing away into the sewer — which is prac- 
ticed in some factories — is a waste which has no justi- 
fication whatever, remembering that the cakes in the 
thick juice presses have as much as 30 per cent of sugar. 
Arrangements should be made to return them into the 
carbonators. 

The other stations we may overlook here, all the more 
since the recovery of sugar from fillmasses, syrups and 
molasses has been treated by the writer in another series 
of articles in the columns of the American Sugar Indus- 
try AND Beet Sugar Gazette. (See: "Recovery of 
Sugar from Syrups and Molasses," this Journal, Nos. 14, 
15, 16 and 17, 1905.) 

54 



Calculations in a sugar factory at¥ord the best mean* 
to get a real picture of how the work is going on in the 
mill at any moment. However, such calculations must 
not be complicated and should not require much time 
which is very precious during the campaign. Formulas, 
no matter how accurate the figures they give, are not 
understood by everybody and not liked by many. In the 
following we give a rule (or rules) by which the calcu- 
lations are simplified without the necessity of using 
formulas : 

"When the amount of water in a sugar solution (or 
product) is increased or decreased, then the Brix is re- 
versely proportional to the total weight of the sugar solu- 
tion (or product)." 

We can express this rule also in the following way : 

"Wlien the amount of solids in a sugar solution is 
increased or decreased, then the water content is reverse- 
ly proportional to the total weight of the sugar solution." 

By sugar solution is meant here : Thin juice, thick 
liquor, fiUmass, syrup, molasses, melted sugar, or any 
other sugar product. For practical calculations, Brix 
can be considered as designating the solids in a sugar 
solution. 

The reverse, also, holds good: 

"When the Brix (solids) is changed in a sugar solu- 
tion, then the total weight of the sugar solution is re- 
versely proportional to its water content." 

This plain rule (or rules) is capable of being applied 
for the solution of many sugar problems. Its usefulness 
is augmented by the fact that it is applicable not only 
for sugar solutions, but also for pulp, lime cake, etc. 

Let us illustrate the general applicability of the above 
rule by a few examples. 

Problem i. Thin juice of 12 degrees Brix, after pass- 
ing the evaporators, gives a thick liquor of 65° Brix 
What is the quantity of thick liquor obtained and how 
much water has been evaporated in the multiple effect? 

The amount of thick liquor is smaller than that of the 
thin liquor and can, according to our rule, be expressed 

12 12 
by the ratio — , or — X 100 = 18.5 per cent of the thin 

65 65 
juice. The quantity of water evaporated equals 100 — 

55 



i8.5 == 81.5 per cent of the thin juice. Knowing that a 
suga'r mill obtains about 125 per cent thin juice (for in- 

125 

stance, a mill of 600 tons capacity gets 600 X = 

100 
750 tons thin juice), we are enabled through the solu- 
tion of this problem to judge the work to be done by the 
thick liquor pump, or to find out the total volume the 
thick liquor tanks on the pan floor must have in order to 
hold the thick juice for the vacuum pan. 

Problem 2. Thick juice of 65 degrees Brix is boiled 
down in the vacuum pan to 92 degrees Brix. To find the 
quantity of massecuite obtained and the amount of water 
evaporated in the pan. 

The amount of massecuite is, in accordance with the 

. 65 . 65 

above rule, given by the ratio — , which equals — X 100 

92 92 

= 70.6 per cent of the weight of the thick liquor. Hence, 
100 — 70.6 = 29.4 per cent of the weight of the thick 
liquor is the quantity of water evaporated in the pan. 

The Problems i and 2 enable us also to find the amount 
of massecuite expressed in percentage of the weight of 
the beets. Namely, let us take a mill of 800 tons ca- 
pacity. It gets : 

125 

800 X == 1,000 tons thin juice m 24 hours. 

100 

18.5 

1,000 X = 185 tons thick juice m 24 hours. 

100 

70.6 

185 X = 130.61 tons massecuite in 24 hours. 

100 

185 — 130.61 = 54.39 tons of water were evaporated 
in the pan. It may be mentioned here that the amount 
of massecuite actually obtained is somewhat smaller on 
account of unavoidable mechanical losses as well as be- 
cause of the removal of some non-sugars. Through 

56 



solution of Problem 2 we are also able to find the vol- 
ume of the mixer needed to hold the first massecuite. 

Problem j. Thin juice from the first efifect of 15 de- 
grees Brix and dry yellow sugar were simultaneously 
allowed to run into the melter until it was nearly full. 
The melted sugar showed 60 degrees Brix. How much 
yellow sugar was added? 

The thin juice, the amount of which may be designated 
\vith 100 per cent, had 15 degrees Brix, hence 85 per cent 
water, the melted sugar- showed 60 degrees Brix, hence 
40 per cent water. The total amount of melted sugar ob- 
tained is more than the thin juice alone, and is, in accord- 

85 . 85 

ance with our rule, given by the ratio — , which equals — 

40 40 

X 100 = 212.5 per cent of the weight of the thin juice. 
Consequently, the amount of yellow sugar added is 212.5 
— 100.0 = 1 12.5 per cent of the weight of the thin juice. 
Knowing volume of m.elter and Brix of melted sugar we 
can readily find the total weight of the melted sugar, 
which is, say, 70,000 lbs. The amount of yellow sugar 

112.5 

added is then : 70,000 X = 37^059 lbs. 

212.5 

Problem 4. Pulp, coming from the diffusion battery 
and showing 95 per cent water, was passed through a 
Bergreen's press when it showed 87 per cent water. 
What is the amount of pressed pulp obtained ? 

The fresh pulp has 95 per cent water, hence 5 per cent 
dry substance, the pressed pulp has 87 per cent water, 
hence 13 per cent dry matter. The amount of pressed 
pulp is evidently smaller than the quantity of fresh 
pulp, and is, according to the above rule, given by the 

5 . 5 

ratio — . This expressed in percentage gives — X 100 

13 13 

= 38.5 per cent, i. e., every 100 tons of fresh pulp fur- 
nish 38.5 tons of pressed pulp under the given conditions. 
The amount of water pressed out equals 100 — 38.5 = 
61.5 tons per 100 tons of fresh pulp. (The small amount 
of solids contained in the water which is pressed out is 
not taken here into consideration.) 

57 



Problem 5. Pressed pulp with 13 per cent dry matter, 
after passing the pulp drier, showed 88 dry matter. How 
much dried pulp was obtained and how much water was 
evaporated in the drying plant? 

In accordance with the above given rule, the amount 

13 13 

of dried pulp is expressed by the ratio — , which equals — 

88 88 

X 100=14.8 oer cent calculated on the weight of the 

38.5 

pressed pulp, or 14.8 X =57 pei" cent of the fresh 

100 
pulp. The amount of water evaporated equals 100 — 14.8 
= 85.2 per cent ; i. e., 85.2 tons of water have been evap- 
orated from every 100 tons of pressed pulp. The Prob- 
lems 4 and 5 enable us, then, to find the percentage of 
pulp obtainable under whatever conditions, as well as to 
calculate the amount of coal consumed in the pulp drier 
as soon as we know the calories of the coal which can 
be reckoned from the results of an elementary analysis. 

Problem 6. Molasses (syrup from the second melada) 
of 78 Brix was added to pulp in the process of manufac- 
turing dried beet pulp. What percentage of the feed is 
obtained from i ton of the molasses, the feed having 
85 dry matter, and how much water loses the molasses 
in the drying plant ? 

The molasses when entering into the composition of 
the pulp molasses loses a certain percentage of water, 
since from 78 dry substance.it is dried- in the drying 
plant up to 85 dry substance. According to the above 
rule, the amount of obtainable feed is given by the ratio 

78 78 

— , which is equal to — X 100 = 91.8 per cent of the 

85 8s 

molasses. In other words, 100 tons of molasses furnish 

91.8 tons in the shape of the feed. The amount of water 

to be evaporated in the drying plant is 100 — 91.8 = 8.2 

tons per 100 tons of molasses. 

The solution of the problems, 5 and 6, gave us the 
following figures : 

58 



loo tons of pressed pulp furnish 14.8 tons of dried 
feed. 

100 tons of pressed pulp must lose 85.2 tons water to 
make dried feed. 

100 tons molasses furnish 91.8 tons of dried feed. 

100 tons molasses must lose 8.2 tons water to make the 
dried feed. 

These figures simply show how economical and profit- 
able it is to add molasses to the pulp and to manufacture 
dried pulp-molasses instead of dried pulp alone. No 
beet sugar factory having a pulp drier should hesitate to 
do so. The dried molasses beet pulp is a feed eagerly 
eaten by cattle, sheep, etc., is highly appreciated by stock- 
men, and finds a ready market. The arrangement neces- 
sary for the production of the pulp-molasses is very 
simple. All that is needed is one tank, or better, two 
tanks, for regular work, placed above the worm convey- 
ing the pulp from the presses to the pulp drier. From 
the bottom of those tanks, into which molasses is alter- 
nately pumped, a small pipe of, say, i^-inch diameter, 
runs to the pulp conveyor and ends a few inches above it. 
A valve in the pipe enables one to regulate the flow of 
the somewhat heated molasses to the pulp. 

How much molasses should be added to the pulp? 

This depends upon the conditions existing in the sugar 
factory. When a part of the molasses is to be used for 
purposes other than for manufacturing pulp-molasses, 
then less molasses is to be added, otherwise more. In 
accordance with these different conditions the addition 
of molasses to the pulp can be regulated at will in such a 
manner that the resulting molasses beet pulp may have 
a sugar percentage ranging from 15 to 35 per cent. 

Problem 7. A beet sugar company sold its molasses to 
a sugar refining company (or any other party) with the 
condition that the molasses should not have any less than 
40 Beaume = y^.y degrees Brix. The molasses actually 
obtained in the factory ranged from '/6 to 82 degrees 
Brix. How much water is to be added in order to get 
molasses of y^.j Brix? 

Through the addition of water to the molasses we shall 
get a total amount of molasses larger than the quantity 

59 



of the undiluted molasses. According- to our rule the 

76 82 
diluted molasses is given by the ratio , or . Ex- 

JZ-I 7Z-7 
76 
pressed in percentage we get X 100=103.1 per 

7Z-7 
82 

cent, or X 100=: 11 1.3 per cent. In other words, 

7Z-7 
to every 100 tons of molasses of 76 or 82 Brix we have 
to add 3.1 tons, or 11.3 tons of water respectively. 

In connection with Problem 7 it may not be out of 
place to tell here the following case : The German Beet 
Sugar Company, Osterwieck am Harz, in accordance 
with a contract, had to deliver molasses of not less than 
40 degrees Beaume to the Sugar Refining- Company 
Frellstedt. The molasses — running syrup from the sec- 
ond massecuite — actually obtained in the beet sugar 
factory had on the average about 79 degrees Brix and 
was for a campaign or more delivered with that density. 
Since the purity does not change whether the molasses 
contain more or less water, the factory management de- 
cided, upon our recommendation, to dilute the molasses 
with water so as to make its specific gravity about y^y 
degrees Brix. In that way both parties concerned got 
exactly what they had to have, according to the contract. 
Since on the average to every 100 tons of molasses 

3-I + II-3 

r= 7.2 tons of water could be added, it is 

2 

readily seen that with the new arrangement the sugar 
factory at Osterwieck was able to get during a campaign 
quite a few carloads of molasses more than it used to 
get previously. 

Too much space would be needed to enumerate all the 
problems which can easily be solved by the above given 
rule. Those given are sufficient to illustrate its wide 
applicability. Equally, we are not able to discuss here 
the process of continuous diffusion, continuous satura- 
tion and others, for lack of time. A good many more 
interesting topics had to be left out for the same reasons. 

60 



Kor could we, in speaking of capacity, or sugar extrac- 
tion, go into details which can usually be found in text- 
books on sugar manufacture. Our purpose was to touch 
merely upon the most important problems or to deal with 
such questions which are not mentioned or not ade- 
quately treated in textbooks. 

The personal ability of the factory managers, super- 
intendents and their assistants is by no means denied. 
The care taken to guard against the stoppage and break- 
age of machinery, or that sliding of belts should be elim- 
inated or reduced to a minimum, is of importance, for it 
is self-evident that all apparatus should be in the best 
possible condition to insure good results. Equally im- 
portant is an adequate technical force to meet any emer- 
gency. The right kind of men at the various sta- 
tions of a mill and a well-pondered organization of the 
whole work to be performed daily and hourly during the 
campaign are unquestionably of great significance. But 
a superintendent, however skilled and experienced, can- 
not make a pump, having the capacity of 5 hectoliters 
per minute, do the work of a pump of 6 hectoliters' 
capacity during the campaign, nor can he extract 14. i 
per cent of sugar (including the losses) from beets with 
a sugar content of but 14. His competence consists 
largely in his knowledge of conditions and discriminating 
power to judge what he can accomplish and what he 
cannot. His ability is fully demonstrated by bringing 
the full capacity of a mill into play and by extracting the 
maximum percentage of sugar in a most economical way. 
The means to achieve all these purposes we have tried 
to outline in this publication. 

In conclusion we should like to say that the American 
farmer, who is sending abroad many millions worth of 
cotton, grain, fruits and meat, can and should raise sugar 
beets for the production of the sugar consumed by the 
nation. He can raise even beets superior to those of 
any other country, as far as quality is concerned. A 
good deal has been accomplished. The sugar factories 
constructed by American construction companies are in 
a good many respects superior to those built in Europe. 
Sugar content and purity of beets grown in this country, 
especially in Colorado and California, are very high, often 
a great deal higher, than can usually be found in the 

61 



Old world. Beets with a sugar percentage of from 17 to 
20 per cent can be found in those states in whole car- 
loads. Often the beets run as high as 20 to 25 per cent. 
Nor is this the limit. Thorough and careful selection of 
mother beets, application of thoroughly scientific, rational 
methods in plowmg, cultivating, thinning, etc., will render 
it possible to develop in time a still higher type of beets. 

There is still one great problem confronting the Ameri- 
can farmer. Germany has produced on the average for 
the last three years three tons of beets to the acre more 
than the United States. The smaller tonnage means a 
loss to the American farmer in the net profit of about 
from ten to ftfteen dollars per acre. Taking into consid- 
eration the generally superior conditions in the United 
States it surprises one that the farmer in this country 
does not get a tonnage even larger than in Germany. As 
we have seen from the first part of this paper the 
essential things that are necessary for the achievement 
of that object consist in use of the best possible beet seed, 
in judicious application of the right amount and kind of 
fertilizers and manures at the right time and in employ- 
ment of intensive,, prudent methods in all the tillage oper- 
ations, commencing from fall plowing up to the time 
when the beets are to be dug out. 

The labor question ! True, this is a weak point, but 
the only one. And even this question can be solved in a 
satisfactory manner, since it is in the power of this nation 
to get as much labor as is needed through a wisely regu- 
lated immigration system. The labor saving devices, for 
instance, steam plows, beet seeders, beet toppers, etc., 
invented and already applied in beet culture, will cut 
down manual labor more and more. The single-germ 
beet seed, in connection with which the work done at 
the United States Department of Agriculture is very 
valuable, will also facilitate the labor question, inasmuch 
as the thinning of beets — one of the hardest operations — 
will be essentially simplified and cheapened. 

What we still need in this country is an adequate sugar 
literature. The weekly and monthly sugar journals pub- 
lished in Germany rank, no doubt, with the best scientific 
and technical periodicals of Europe. The same is true of 
the textbooks and special publications relating to the sugar 

62 



industry. The sugar institute in Berlin under the direc- 
tion of Professor A. Herzfeld is the greatest of its kind 
in the world. It is such kind of journals and institutions 
that have been in a large measure instrumental in creat- 
ing in that country the world's greatest beet sugar indus- 
try. If the people in this country are in earnest to bring 
into life a sugar industry commensurate to the other 
leading industries, they must not forget that the creation 
of a strictly American sugar literature is for that purpose 
quite essential. Is there anyone who can deny the great 
importance of standard books covering the most mo- 
mentous problems with which those connected with the 
sugar industry are confronted? Yet, we have very few, 
if any, special books dealing with the sugar problems 
viewed from the standpoint of strictly American condi- 
tions. This is, it is needless to say, of far greater inter- 
est and import than translations of even the best foreign 
publications. For instance, a book dealing in a clear 
manner with the most useful and necessary calculations 
throughout a modern American sugar factory, one show- 
ing in a plain but exact way how the capacity of each 
station can be calculated, containing a few chosen chap- 
ters with regard to fuel economy, utilization of by-prod- 
ucts, crystallization in m^otion and illustrating the text 
with numerous examples from the sugar factory, ought 
to be, it seems to us, of interest to sugar manufacturers, 
managers, superintendents, chemists, mechanics and all 
their assistants. 

When we take into consideration that the increase in 
population through natural augmentation and immigra- 
.tion is more than a million and a half per annum ; when we 
further consider that the population in the United States 
will be in twenty years 120 millions, in fifty 3^ears from to- 
day about 200 millions, we must admit that the time is very 
close when intensive agricultural methods will have to be 
applied, anyway. The sugar beet has proved to be an 
excellent educational means for the European farmer, 
and with that vegetable more intensive modes have been 
successfully introduced in general farming. Is it, further, 
not quite natural that this Republic, being the greatest 
sugar consumer in the world, ought to be also the world's 
greatest sugar producer? All the conditions for such a 
great industry are present here. There is a great abun- 

63 



dance of available fertile land for the beet, there is plenty 
of sunshine and water, abundance of capital, an energetic, 
industrious and intelligent population in addition to mar- 
ket facilities, and already considerable experience in both 
beet r-'ising and sugar manufacturing. 




64 



Appendix. 

Editor's Xote. — The utilization of the by-products of 
beet sugar factories is. during recent years, forcing itself 
upon the attention of all who are interested in the devel- 
opment of the American beet sugar industry, and it has 
occurred to the publishers, therefore, to add something 
upon this subject to the work b}' Dr. Jodidi, who has not 
touched upon this matter in the preceding pages. The 
following, by Dr. C. O. Townsend, reprinted in The 
American Sugar Industry and Beet Sugar Gazette, 
from the Year Book of the Department of Agriculture 
for 1908, contains valuable information relative to the 
utilization of by-products : 

INTRODUCTION. 

The primary object in growing sugar beets is the pro- 
duction of refined sugar. Any other materials, therefore, 
that remain or are produced in the manufacture of refined 
sugar from beets should be classed as by-products. These 
consist chiefly of beet tops (leaves and crowns), pulp, 
waste molasses, and lime cake. From these original by- 
products other by-products are often made that are of 
much greater commercial value than are the original 
by-products ; for example^ alcohol made from waste mo- 
lasses and commercial fertilizer made from refuse slop. 
The' first mill for the utilization of sugar beets, built 
more than one hundred 3'ears ago, made alcohol as one of 
the chief products, while sugar was looked upon as a by- 
product or at least as a product of secondary importance. 
In recent years both the quantity and the quality of sugar 
produced from beets have placed the material in the high- 
est rank as a commercial product. The total quantity of 
sugar produced annually from beets is approximately 
the same as that produced from cane, whether consid- 
ered from the standpoint of sugar production in the 
United States or from the standpoint of the world's out- 
put, and the sugar is just as satisfactory for all purposes, 
including the preparation of jellies, jams, and preserves, 
so far as the Department of Agriculture and several of 
the state experiment stations have been able to de- 
termine. 

A careful consideration uf the present uses in general 
of the by-products of the sugar beet brings one to the 

65 



conclusion that much of their real value is being lost to 
the farmer and to the sugar company. This paper is 
written with the hope that a more general interest may 
be taken m the proper utilization of the sugar beet, and 
especially of the by-products. 

TOPS. 

The first by-product of the sugar beet is the tops, 
composed of leaves and crowns, which are removed by 
the grower in preparing the beets for the factory at har- 
vest time. Although the sugar is made in the leaves, only 
a small percentage remains in them, as it is constantly 
passing into the root, where it is stored. The crown 
also contains a comparatively small quantity of sugar, 
while both leaves and crowns contain a comparatively 
high percentage of mineral matter, or ash. The per- 
centage of ash in the leaves is usually about three times 
as great as the percentage in the untopped beet, while 
the percentage of ash in the crown is more than six times 
as great as the percentage in the whole beet. On ac- 
count of the low sugar content and the high percentage 
of ash in the leaves and crowns they are discarded so 
far as sugar making is concerned, and therefore become 
a secondary product or by-product. 

The leaves and crowns may be utilized either as a fer- 
tilizer or as a stock food. As a fertilizer they may be 
plowed under in the fall while still green or they may 
remain on the ground and be plowed under in the spring 
after more or less decomposition has taken place, or 
when fed to stock they may enter into and form a part of 
the stable manure, and in this manner be returned to the 
soil. If left in the field and plowed under, they will add 
a small amount of humus to the soil and a comparatively 
large amount of mineral matter. They should therefore 
be spread- over the ground as uniformly as possible if 
they are to be plowed under. 

The weight of leaves and crowns produced per acre 
varies greatly in different parts of the country, as well 
as from season to season, depending upon soil and cli- 
matic conditions. An average of 4 tons of tops per acre 
is a conservative estimate. This means an annual yield 
of about 13^ million tons of this by-product. Of this 
quantity about one-fourth, or i ton per acre, is crowns 

66 



and the remaining 3 tons per acre are leaves. The crowns 
contain about 5.6 per cent of mineral matter, or ash, 
which is equal to about 112 pounds per acre, while the 
leaves contain about 2.2 per cent of ash, yielding for the 
6,000 pounds about 132 pounds of mineral matter per 
acre. Crowns and leaves together give a tota! average 
yield of 244 pounds of mineral matter per acre. This 
mineral matter consists for the most part of potash, 
soda, lime, magnesia, chlorin, sulphuric acid, silica, and 
phosphoric acid, which are mainly necessary plant foods, 
so that the value of this by-product as a ferV.lizer should 
not be overlooked. 

If the leaves and crowns are to be fed to stock, they 
may be utilized in the fresh state, dried, or siloed. The 
best method of disposing of this by-product must depend 
upon local conditions and upon the object sought ; that 
is, whether it is advisable to get the most out of this 
material from the feeding standpoint or to get it into the 
form of a fertilizer as soon as possible. 

Many beet growers turn their sheep or other stock into 
the beet fields after the roots hnve been hauled to the 
factory. This is the most wasteful method of feeding 
beet tops, since much of the material is trampled upon 
and the stock will not eat it. One of the most satis- 
factory methods of feeding beet leaves and tops is to dry 
them. This requires extra 'abor, and if they are arti- 
ficially dried special machiv.ery is required, which means 
additional cost. Tops when fresh contain from 85 to 90 
per cent of water and when dried from 10 to 12 per cent ; 
that is, in drying there is a loss -of about 75 per cent of 
the original weight of the material, so that the average 
yield of dried material per acre is about i ton, which is 
considered equal Ir, feeding value to the same quantity of 
first-class hay. A very small part of this by-product is 
treated in this manner in this country at present. The 
cash value of the material as a stock food depends upon 
the demand and therefore varies with the section and the 
season. 

In some localities, especially in dairy sections, beet tops 
are siloed with other material for winter and early spring 
feeding. These silos are filled with alternate layers of 
beet leaves and some dry material, like straw, which will 

67 



take up the excess moisture from the leaves. The layers 
of leaves are, or should be, sprinkled with salt, using 
about 6 to 8 pounds per ton of leaves. This mixture, ii 
properly siloed, will keep for several years and is con- 
sidered very satisfactory by dairymen. 

Estimating the value of beet tops as $6 per acre, which 
is at the rate of $1.50 per ton for the fresh material or 
$6 per ton for it when dried, the total value of this by- 
product in the United States exceeds $2,ocx),ooo. It is 
evident, therefore, that beet tops have not received the 
attention due them, either as a fertilizer or as a stock 
food. 

PU]LP. 

The material that remains after the beets have been 
sliced and the sugar has been extracted is known as 
pulp. Fresh pulp constitutes about 80 per cent of the 
weight of the beets. In the process of extraction the 
beets lose nearly all their sugar, usually only a fraction of 
I per cent being left in the residue or pulp. They also 
lose a large part of the salts taken up in the process of 
growth, so that the residue after extraction consists of 
about 90 per cent water, from 1.5 to 3.5 per cent cellulose, 
a fraction of i per cent each of albuminoids and ash. 
and about 0.5 to 3.33 per cent extractive substances. 

The crop of beets harvested in the United States in 
1907 amounted to 3,767,871 tons, which yielded more 
than 2^ million tons of pulp. This material is disposed 
of in various ways by the different sugar companies. In 
some instances it is furnished the beet grower gratis, 
while in other cases it is sold at a nominal price, from 
12^ cents to $1 per ton. At an average price of 50 
cents per ton this by-product would represent a return to 
the sugar companies of more than ij/^. million dollars. 
Its real value as a stock food has been estimated at from 
two to three times that amount, depending upon the kind 
of stock to which it is fed and the object sought ; that is, 
increase in weight, energy, milk flow, butter produc- 
tion, etc. 

Efforts have been made to utilize beet pulp in the 
manufacture of paper and also as a fertilizer. It seems 
to have a percentage of fiber too low to make it satis- 
factory in the manufacture of paper. As a fertihzer, it 

68 



IS useful in adding a certain amount of humus to the 
soil, thereby improving its physical condition. It con- 
tains also a small proportion of ash, a fraction of i per 
cent of the wet pulp, which amounts to considerable in 
the aggregate. Up to the present time its greatest use 
has been as a stock food. For this purpose it is fed 
either wet or dried. To be fed in the wet condition, it 
may be used as soon as it comes from the factory, or it 
may be left for some time in the factory silo or pit, or 
the stockman using it may haul it to his farm or ranch 
and pile it in some convenient place for feeding pur- 
poses. The layer of the pulp on the surface of the pile — 
that is, the part exposed to the air — undergoes certain 
fermentation changes and should be discarded ; for this 
reason the pulp should be kept in piles as large as prac- 
ticable, since the larger the diameter of the pile — that is, 
the greater the bulk of material — the smaller the pro- 
portionate loss from surface fermentation. To be fed 
in the dried condition, it may be dried by itself or it 
may be mixed with molasses or other edible material 
before drying. But whether it is to be fed in the wet 
or in the dried condition it should be mixed with other 
material before feeding- 
It is customary in this country and in Europe to feed 
the pulp mixed with a given amount of grain or oil cake, 
together with a quantity of chopped hay, straw, dried 
beet leaves, or material of a similar nature, the propor- 
tion of pulp to other material depending upon the object 
sought. In some instances the grain or oil cake is omitted 
and only the pulp and roughage fed. According to good 
authority, the daily ration should amount to only about 
6 to lo per cent of the weight of the animal, so that an 
animal weighing i,00O pounds would receive from 60 
to 100 pounds of pulp, to which should be added rough- 
age to the extent of 10 to 15 per cent of the weight of the 
pulp and when desired from 2 to 5 pounds of oil cake or 
grain per 100 pounds of pulp and roughage. 

The dried pulp, according to various analyses, con- 
sists of from 8 to 12 per cent of water, 4 to 8 per cent of 
ash, 7 to 8 per cent of raw protein, 18 to 20 per cent 
of crude fiber, and from 50 to 60 per cent of nitrogen- 
free extract. In drying the pulp it is first passed through 
a press which removes from 10 to 15 per cent of the 

69 



water, and the remaining wet pulp is then transferred to 
kilns, where the moisture is reduced to from 8 to 12 per 
cent, a process which requires from thirty to forty min- 
utes. Othec methods may be used in drying the pulp, 
but whatever the method the purpose is to remove a large 
part of the water without burning or otherwise changing 
the composition of the solid matter. In the dried con- 
dition the pulp will keep almost indefinitely if stored 
in a dry place, and it is easily transported. It commands 
a selling price varying from $12 to $25 per ton, depend- 
ing upon locality and condition. Good results seem to 
have been obtained by feeding a mixture of dried pulp 
(with or without molasses), chopped hay, and oil cake or 
grain. The total quantity fed must depend, as in the case 
of the tops, upon the kind of stock and the object sought. 
\\'hile the use of pulp as a stock food has increased rapid- 
ly during the last few years, there are still some locali- 
ties where its value has not yet been recognized. 

WASTE MOLASSES. 

Waste molasses is the by-product that remains after 
the crystallizable sugar has been separated from the con- 
centrated beet juice, or molasses. This by-product con- 
tains nearly 50 per cent of sugar which cannot be sep- 
arated from the non-sugars by the ordinary methods, 
owing to the presence of various salts that jiave been 
taken up by the beet from the soil in the process pi 
growth. These salts being soluble are extracted from 
the beet with the sugar and remain in the molasses. In 
addition to the sugar and salts in the molasses, there are 
some organic substances which, with the salts, may be 
classed as non-sugars. As a rule the larger the propor- 
tion of non-sugars present the smaller the quantity of 
sugar tbat can be separated, a fact which shows the im- 
portance of the purity coefficient. The purity coefficient 
is the number which shows the relation of the sugar in 
the juice to the total solids in the juice and is deter- 
mined by dividing the weight of th'e sugar in a given 
quantity of juice by the weight of the total solids (com- 
bined weight of sugarand non-sugar) in the same quan- 
tity of juice. 

In addition to the effect of these salts upon the separa- 
tion of the sugar, they with the organic matter give to 

70 



the molasses a disagreeable flavor which prevents it 
from being used for table purposes. The presence of a 
large proportion of non-sugars, especially of mineral 
salt, makes the waste molasses a valuable fertilizer, but it 
could not be used economically for this purpose owing to 
the great loss of sugar that w'ould result. However, the 
non-sugars do not prevent the molasses from being used 
as a stock food provided too large a quantity is not fed 
at one time or in one day. Feeding molasses to stock 
has been practiced in Europe for nearly one" hundred 
years, and yet large quantities of so-called refuse mo- 
lasses have been wasted in this country because stock- 
men who might have utilized it did not realize its value. 
In those sections where it is used as a stock food it is 
fed to cattle, horses, hogs, sheep, and poultry. It may 
be dried with beet pulp, alfalfa, or other material for 
feeding purposes, or it may be used by simply diluting it 
with about twice its volume of w'ater, in which condi- 
tion it is fed by itself, or it is sprinkled upon dry hay or 
other dry fodder. The quantity of molasses used per 
day depends upon' the kind of stock to which it is fed 
and varies from one-half pound to 6 pounds per thou- 
sand weight of the animal. In beginning the use of mo- 
lasses as a part of the daily ration, it is advisable to start 
with alx)ut one-fourth of the desired quantity and gradu- 
ally increase the amount from day to day until the full 
ration is fed. The greatest direct value of the molasses 
as a. stock food is in the sugar, but the non-sugars un- 
dou'btedl}' aid and stimulate digestion and are therefore 
of great value indirectly if not fed in too large 
quantities. 

Another important use for the waste molasses is in the 
•manufacture of alcohol, including that for denaturing 
purposes. One gallon of beet molasses, containing about 
50 per cent of sugar, weighs approximately 12 pounds 
and will yield about 3 pints of 95 per cent alcohol; 
therefore a 50-gallon barrel of waste molasses will pro- 
duce about 19 gallons of 95 per cent alcohol. Besides 
alcohol, the distilleries produce as a by-product fusel oil, 
and the remaining slop or refuse is of great value. Fusel 
oil finds commercial value in the manufacture of lacquers. 
Waste molasses is also utilized to some extent in the 
manufacture of vinegar of a very satisfactory quality. 

71 



Certain medicinal preparations have been separated 
from this slop, such as betaine. The slop or refuse of a 
distillery contains the salts and organic matter that were 
present in the molasses. From the concentration of this 
slop, potash salts are obtained and nitrogen compounds 
are prepared in Germany and other foreign countries 
that are used as fertilizers. In this country this waste 
product known as slop is usually dried and ground up 
with fish scraps or other material and placed on the 
market as a commercial fertilizer. When these methods 
of disposing- of the waste molasses are practiced, ap- 
proximately all the material extracted from the beet is 
utilized. 

Formerly waste molasses was used in Europe in the 
manufacture of soap, three grades of which were pro- 
duced, namely, hard, medium, and soft. Effort^ are 
being made by the Office of Public Roads to determine 
the practicability of utilizing waste molasses in com- 
bination with other material in constructing blocks for 
street-paving purposes. Whether or not these blocks 
will be sufficiently durable for practical purposes can be 
determined only by a prolonged test, which is now under 
way. 

When the value of denatured alcohol is better under- 
stood it will undoubtedly come into more general use, 
and it is probable that waste molasses will form an im- 
portant source of this product. In some countries a 
portion of the waste molasses is utilized in the manufac- 
ture of briquets by mixing coal dust with molasses, 
pressing, and drying. It is probable that other uses of 
a more or less important nature will be found for this 
by-product from time to time, but even with our present 
knowledge of the value of this important material not 
one pound of residuary molasses should be allowed to 



sro to waste. 



LIME CAKE. 



As already stated, there are certain non-sugars in 
the beet juice that prevent immediate crystallization of 
the sugar. In order to remove some of these substances 
the juice is treated Avith milk of lime. The amount of 
lime used in the preparation of the milk of lime is gener- 

72 



ally about 2 to 6 per cent of the weight of the beets 
sliced; that is, a factory slicing 500 tons of beets a day 
will require from 10 to 30 tons of lime daily. The 
amount needed, therefore, for a 100-day run would aver- 
age about 2,000 tons, making a total for all the factories 
in the country of nearly 200,000 tons. After the lime 
has combined with certain substances in the beet juice, 
the liquid containing the sugar is pressed through filter 
cloths and the lime cake remains behind. Comparatively 
little use has been made of this by-product in this coun- 
try, while in Europe it is in general use as a fertilizer. 
So far as we have tested lime cake as a fertilizer it has 
given satisfactory results in nearly all cases. It is to be 
especially recommended in the case of acid soils and 
hard soils that need some material to make them more 
friable. It is certainly an enormous waste of valuable 
material to wash the lime cake into the sewers and 
gullies, as is done in tlie great majority of American fac- 
tories at the present time. The difficulty in handling this 
material and spreading it uniformly over the land is a 
serious hindrance to its use as a fertilizer. The cost of 
transportation is also an important consideration in this 
connection. In a few irrigated sections the lime cake 
is washed out over the fields with the waste water, under 
which condition it is spread more or less uniformly and 
appears to be very beneficial to alfalfa and other field 
crops. If it could be passed through some process or 
mixed with some material that would render its handling 
easier, it would undoubtedly come into more general use 
as a fertilizer. 

Numerous efforts have been made to utilize the lime 
cake in the manufacture of cement in this country, but, 
so far as can be ascertained, the tests made have not yet 
been entirely satisfactory. In Germany this industry 
has reached commercial importance. That lime cake will 
eventually be used for some such purpose there can be 
no doubt. A small amount of waste lime from beet 
sugar factories is now being used in the manufacture of 
a wall board, the principal ingredients of which are coal 
tar and waste lime. It has been used in the construction 
of pavements, roofing, etc., by drying, pulverizing, and 
mixing with asphaltum. 

73 



SEED BEETS. 

As the beet-seed industry develops in this country, sev- 
eral additional by-products of the sugar beet will deserve 
attention, namely, the seed beets after they have gone to 
seed, seed stalks, and refuse seed. The seed beets in- 
crease in size during the second year, often attaining 
a weight from two to four times as great as the beets had 
at the end of the tirst season. The sugar content also de- 
serves considerable attention, often varying from lO to 
14 per cent after the seed has been harvested at the end 
of the second season. These roots, therefore, repre- 
sent considerable material per acre, usually from 8 to 10 
tens of roots, which, owing to their woody, fibrous na- 
ture, are not readily workable m the sugar mill. If 
passed through a chopper they may be utilized as a stock 
food, or, considering the large quantity of sugar present, 
they may be employed in the manufacture of alcohol. At 
the present time less than 300 acres of beet seed are 
grown in this country, so that the loss from the non- 
utilization of these roots is less than in the case of any 
of the by-products previously mentioned. As the beet- 
seed industry develops, however, this by-product will 
become of great importance. Future possibilities along 
this line may be realized when we remember that the 
present needs of this industry call for the total seed pro- 
duction of 5,000 acres and that the industry may be in- 
creased fivefold. When this stage of development is 
reached there will be at least 250,000 tons of seed beets 
to be utilized in some manner each year. 

The seed stalks also represent a large amount of waste 
material. In Europe efforts have been made to utilize 
the seed stalks by choppmg them up and mixing them 
with some of the waste molasses for stock food, but 
owing to their dry, fibrous condition they do not seem 
to be satisfactory for this purpose. Whether or not any 
practical use can be found for them remains to be de- 
termined. 

It sometimes happens that the seed, because of its age 
or for some other reason, is not satisfactory for planting. 
It is then best utilized by transforming it into a meal 
by grinding, when "it may be used as a stock food, 
thereby preventing it from becoming a total loss. Ground 

74 



beet seed is composed of from lo to 12 per cent water, 

13 to 17 per cent protein, 4 to 8 per cent fat, 32 to 45 
per cent nitrogen-free extractive, 13 to 18 per cent crude 
fiber, and 5 to 13 per cent ash. The ash contains from 
20 to 25 per cent potash, 4 to 22 per cent Hme, and from 

14 to 46 per cent phosphoric acid. It is evident, there- 
fore, that ground beet seed is vakiable for cattle feeding 
and makes an important addition to the stable manure. 
In this connection it should be added that under ordi- 
nary conditions beet seed will retain its vitality for sev- 
eral 3^ears, so that there is little probability under exist- 
ing circumstances of being obliged to utilize the seed for 
other purposes than planting'. 

OTHER WASTE MATERIAL. 

In addition to the by-products mentioned, there are 
several kinds of refuse in sugar factories that should be 
noted in this connection, namely, waste water, old filter 
cloth, rubber belting, and gunny sacks. 

A 500-tcn factory requires about 2^2 million gallons 
of water daily during the time the factory is in opera- 
tion. This is used in washing the beets, extracting the 
sugar from the cossettes, in the production of steam, etc. 
A greater part, however, of the water is used in washing 
the beets and is allowed to flow ofif as waste material 
after it has served its purpose in the factory. In only a 
few cases is this waste water utilized, but when prac- 
ticable it has been found very useful for washing alkali 
out of the soil, for irrigation purposes, or for washing 
the pulp and lime cake away from the factory. 

The old filter cloth is sometimes sold to nurserymen, 
who use it for wrapping material, or to tomato growers, 
who use it to protect their plants from late frosts. 

Rubber belting when discarded finds ready sale for 
brake-block lining and for rubber recovery. The large 
quantities of cloth and beltmg used in sugar factories 
make, these items of considerable importance as waste 
material. 

A sugar factory utilizing the raw material from 5,000 
acres will have not less than a thousand gunny sacks each 
year that were used in transporting the seed to the fac- 
tory. If the seed were grown in this country the sacks 
could be used over and over, but it would not be econ- 

7S 



omy to ship them back to Europe to be refilled. For 
this reason the factories have large numbers of these 
sacks on hand, many of which are utilized about the mills 
in various ways, while others are disposed of to farmers 
and other buyers at a low price, but amounting to a con- 
siderable sum in the aggregate. These sacks are useful 
in handling potatoes and other vegetables, in covering 
seed beets and other roots that are to be kept through the 
winter for seed production, and in many other ways 
about the farm and garden. 




76 



Audubon Sugar School 

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY 

Baton Rouge, Louisiana 

Situated in the sugar belt of Louisiana and sur- 
rounded by many of the most intelligent and progres- 
sive sugar planters in the world, the AUDUBON 
SUGAR SCHOOL has unequaled facilities • for train- 
ing experts in the sugar industry. 

Regular and Special courses in Sugar Agriculture, 
Sugar Chemistry and Sugar Engineering are given in 
the class-room, laboratory, workshop, factory and field. 

Its students come from nearly every sugar pro- 
ducing country in the world. Its graduates are in 
great demand and command high salaries as Sugar 
Chemists, Sugar Engineers and Factory Superinten- 
dents. 

Write for bulletin or catalogue. 



7^ LARGEST 
BATTERY 

(OF)- 





-( IN )- 

The world 

Erected by the 

RIFE 
L. ^J ENGINE CO. 

Elevates Water 262 feet. Distance 13,000 feet. Runs constantly 
with little attention or expense. 

U.S. A. GOVERNMENT RECLAMATION AND RAILROAD TANK SUPPLY 

8,000 in use operating under 18-inch to 50-foot fall. Elevates water 30 
feet for each foot of fall. Capacity 3 gals, to 700 per minute. Rams fit- 
ted for 1-in. to 12-in. Drive Pipes in actual use. Country residences and 
sugar centrals equipped. Catalogue and Estimate Free. 

RIFE ENGINE CO., - ^aoo trinity bu.ld.ngs. 



NEW YORK CITY, U 



77 



BRBUSTEDT'S 

HIQH-ORADE SUGAR BEET SEED. 




Highest Sugar 

Content, 

Greatest Yield 

and Best Purities! 



Proven by exten- 
sive factory, 
U. S. Government 
and Experiment 
Station tests. 



The Best Colorado Recorded: Breustedt's "NEURE ZUCHT." 

1906 1907 tests 

Sugar in Beet - - - - 19.4% 17.7% 

Tons per Acre - - - - 26.9 38.4 

Purity - - _ . . 87.6 88.0 

Sugar per Acre ... - 10,398 1 0,054 pounds 

BDV/iyARI=> C. F»OST, JYi. E., Sole rtsgent, 
A.nn Arboi-, IVIioh. 



78 



EDWARD C. POST, M.L 

Importer and Sole American 
Agent For 

The Latest Sugar Factory Specialties 

Complete Beet-Slicer Equipments, 
Bergreen Patent Double Knife=Box System, 
Patent Slicer Disks. 
Knife= Boxes, Knives, 
Pulp Presses, 

Beet=Tail Cutters, 
Rubbish Catchers, etc., etc. 

"LIBRA'* Automatic Recording Scales for 
Granulated Sugar, Raw Sugar, 
Beets, Coal, Grain, 

Liquids, etc. 

"REMANIT" Carbonized Silk, 

Pipe and Boiler Coverings. 

"DANA" Patent Belting, for 

Wet, Dry, Hot or Cold Conditions. 



Old Sugar Factories and Old Sugar 
Factory Machinery Listed and Sold. 

New Sugar Factory Enterprises 
Promoted. 

Correspondence Solicited. 



Ann Arbor, Mich., U. S. A. 



79 



WOHANKA & COMPANY 

Prague, Bohemia, Austria 

Sugar Beet Pedigree Cultures— Originators of 
the Perennial Seed Beet 



THERE IS A REASON 

why you should insist on planting 
WOHANKA'S SUGAR BEET SEED 
in preference to all others. 

Since the introduction of Briem's 
"PERENNIAL SCIONS" into the cul- 
tural methods of Wohanka's Seed Breed- 
ing Station their sugar beet cultures 
excel all other brands, barring none, in 
stability of type, physiological elasticity 
and robust constitution, resisting disease 
as well as the influences of new environ- 
ments and clim.ate. 

In breeding ability they transmit 
their own characteristics so vigorously 
that even under "antigenial" conditions 
the uniformity of type, physiological and 
chemical qualities are retained and 
therefore the highest results in quality 
and quantity obtained. Farmer and 
factory equally satisfied. 



Charles W. de RekOWSki. American Agent 
Moffat Block, Detroit, Michigan 



80 



WOHANKA & COMPANY 

PRAGUE, BOHEMIA, AUSTRIA 

Sugar Beet Pedigree Cultures Originators 

of the Perennial Seed Beet. 

Our Seed Breeding Gardens and Scientific 
Laboratories are — and always liave been — in 
charge of H. BRIEM, the recognized Authority 
and Investigator on the Physiology and Chemis= 
try of the Sugar Beet and the foremost Pioneer of 
"CONTINUOUS INDIVIDUAL (SCION) SELEC= 
TION". The universal recognition of our achieve= 
ments in scientific beet seed breeding makes the 
competitive use of our seeds a logical necessity 
for every progressive sugar factory management. 

Farmers desiring information regarding the 
art of breeding sugar beet seed, can obtain my 
annual bulletins FREE, by writing to the above 
address. These reports are the ONLY authorita^ 
tive treatise on the subject printed in the English 
language and have found universal recognition. 



CHARLES W. de REKOWSKI, 

American Agent 

Moffat Block, Detroit, Michigan 



8i 




^ Formulated from the best Fertilizer 
Materials, such of Dried Blood, Con- 
centrated Tankage, Ground Tankage 
and Bone Meal, reinforced with 
Nitrate of Soda, Acid Phosphate and 
high-grade Potash Salts, arranged to 
feed the plant from beginning of 
growth through to maturity. Finely 
ground and dry. In the best of drill- 
able condition. We have Brands for 
all types of soil, compounded to in- 
crease the Tonnage and the Sugar 
Content at the same time. 

Armour's Sugar Beet Fertilizers 

"Enrich the Soil 
Increase the Yield 
Improve the Quality" 

"The Best Beet Fertilizers" 

" Yeur Harvest Will Prove It" 



ARMOUR FERTILIZER WORKS 

Union Stock Yards Chicago, Illinois 



82 



LARROWE-VALLEZ COMPANY 

Ford Building, DETROIT, MICH. 



DESIGNERS AND BUILDERS OF 

Complete Beet Sugar Factories 

— and — 

Beet Pulp Drying Plants 



Plants of Our Construction Now In Operation 

700 ton sugar factory for Qerinan=Anierican Sugar Co. 
Paulding, Ohio. Erected 1910' 

900 ton pulp drying plant forQ erman-American Sugar Co. 

Paulding, Ohio. Erected 1910 

1000 ton pulp drying plant for U. S. Sugar & Land Co. 

Garden City, Kas. Erected 1910 

700 ton pulp drying plant for Owosso Sugar Company 
Lansing, Mich. Erected 1910 

600 ton pulp drying plant for St. Louis Sugar Company 
St. Louis, Mich. Erected 1909 



83 



G. SCHREIBER 
& SOHN 

GROWERS OF 
NORDHAUSEN 

SUGAR BEET SEED 

SCHREIBER'S 

Elite-Specialitaet 
Improved Klein -Wanzleben 

Every has ^'^(^'^cinteed to he 
SCHREIBER'S Own Growing 

Recognized Quality 
Merits Confidence 

ALLEN G. FREEMAN, Sole Agent 
United States and Canada 



16 California St., San Francisco, Cal. 
84 . 



MARSH 
SUGAR HOUSE PUMPS 

Extreme Simplicity Combined 
With the Greatest Efficiency 




Marsh Dry Vacuum Pump 

Marsh Sugar House Pumps are of the latest 
and most approved design. Ever}?- part is 
built, so far as weight and strength are con- 
cerned, to meet any demand no matter how 
severe. 

Marsh Pumps cannot short stroke, race or 
pound and even at high speed ever}^ stroke is 
a full stroke, thus assuring full working capa- 
city with a minimum steam consumption. 
They are fully bronze fitted at regular prices. 

Ask for booklet on Sugar House Pumps, il- 
lustrating and describing our dry vacuum, 
sweet water, boiler feed, filter press and 
magma pumps. 

AMERICAN STEAM PUMP COMPANY 

BATTLE CREEK, MICH. 



85 



The Kilby 

Manufacturing 
Company 

CLEVELAND, OHIO 



Builders of 

Machinery 

for 



Beet and Cane Sugar 
Factories 



86 



The Construction 



OF 



Modern Su^ar Works 



To properly design and construct a sugar 
plant requires years of practical work and 
technical training. 

To operate a plant successfully requires not 
only experience and technical knowledge, but 
also knoAv ledge of what is possible to be 
accomplished. 

The experience and knowledge necessary to 
properl}^ design and operate a sugar plant is 
seldom found in a single individual. Some 
people, without such knowledge, prefer to go it 
blindly and spend the whole lot of money trying 
it out only to find in the end that a better and 
more efficient plant could have been built for 
much less mone}^ by competent and skilled 
engineers. 

When you contemplate building or improv- 
ing your plant let the Dyer Company co-operate 
with you. 

They will do the engineering only, or take 
the contract to furnish any of the machinery, 
or to construct the entire works. 



88 



The Dyer Company 

Builders of Sugar Works 
Engineers and Contractors 



General Offices: 
2031 Euclid Ave. Cleveland, Ohio 



Skilled engineers, sugar chemists, and designers 
of machinery. They will contract to design, 
furnish and erect all the machinery and buildings 
for complete cane or beet sugar plants. 



The Machinery is Manufactured by 

Allis-Ghalmers Company, 

Milwaukee, Wis. and Scranton, Pa. 

AGENTS: 

The Allis-Chalmers Co. The American Trading Co. 

71 Broadway, New York City 25 Broad St., New York City 
San Francisco, Cal. Havana, Cuba 

New Orleans, La. Buenos Ayres 

Rio de Janeiro 

Kobe, Japan 

Yokohama 




FAMOUS OHIO TVVO=ROW BEET CULTIVATOR 

PERFECT CULTIVATION 

The FAMOUS OHIO is conceded by all experts to be 
the BEST BEET CULTIVATOR MADE. From the 
style of construction you can see why this is a fact, and 
also why it is recommended and used by such large beet 
companies as the following : 

QERMAN=AMERICAN SUGAR CO., - BAY CITY, MICH. 

MICHIGAN SUGAR CO., - - = SAGINAW, MICH. 

OWOSSO SUGAR CO., . . = OWOSSO, MICH. 

DOMINION SUGAR CO., = = WALLACEBURG, CANADA 

MT. CLEMENS SUGAR CO., - MT. CLEMENS, MICH. 

ROCK COUNTY SUGAR CO., - - JANESVILLE, WIS. 

IOWA SUGAR CO., = - = OSAGE, IOWA 

IT COSTS HALF AS MUCH TO HANDLE YOUR BEETS 
IF YOU USE THE FAMOUS OHIO CULTIVATOR 

LET US SEND YOU PULL INFORMATION 

The OHIO CULTIVATOR CO. 

BELLEVUE, OHIO, U.S. A. 



90 



S "The Name Tells A True Story" ^B^^ 
UPERIOR 

Beet Drills 

The Superior Two-Horse Beet Drill is a 

four-row machine, adiustable to sow four rows at 
a tinie, 20, 22 and 24 inches apart. Provided with 
runner furrow openers, equipped with open face 
split press or gauge wheels. Spacing Bars are fur- 
nished with each machine, so that the rows are 
always an exact distance apart. Has positive 
Force Feed for Beet Seed, also Force Fertilizer 
Feed. Furnished with and without Fertilizer 
Attachment. Separate Hoppers for both seed 
and fertilizer. 

The Superior One-Horse Beet Drill is made 
in two styles — Plain and Fertilizer. It is an ad- 
justable two-row machine — that is, it will sow 
two rows at one time— 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28 
inches apart. The feed is a positive force feed, 
especially adapted to Beet Seed ; is of the internal 
type, change of quantity made by means of the 
Superior Disk Wheel and Sliding Pinion; the feed 
being also adapted to corn, peas and beans, mak- 
ing the Superior One-Horse Two-Row Beet Drill 
one of the most useful implements on the farm. 

SEND FOR BEET DRILL FOLDER 

Amencan Seeding Machine 
Company 

Incorporated 

Springfield, Oho 



91 



ZEIS 




Abbe - Refractometer 

for determining the dry substance in cane and beet 
sugar solutions after Main, Prinsen-Geerligs, etc. 




For prospectus "14 Mess" address to 



CARL ZEISS, JENA 



(GeimsHy) 



BAUSCH & LOMB OPTICAL CO. 

ROCHESTER, N. Y. 



92 



WRITE FOR LIST 

OF 

Books and Publications Devoted 
to the Sugar Industry Relat- 
ing to Field and Factor}^ 



SOLD BY THE 



Beet Sugar Gazette Company 

5 Wabash Avenue 
Chicago, III., U. S. A. 



93 



Subscribe for the 

American Sugar Industry 

and 

Beet Sugar Gazette 

It covers every branch of the 
sugar industry and contains 
contributions from sugar ex- 
perts in all parts of the world. 

The most progressive sugar 
trade journal printed in the 
English language. Brimfull of 
sugar news and facts gathered 
from all sugar-producing 
countries. 

Subscription price, $2.50 per 
annum; Foreign countries and 
Canada, $3.00 per annum. 

Sample copies and advertising 
rates will be cheerfull}^ sent 
upon request. 

Beet Sugar Gazette Company 

PUBLISHERS 
5 Wabash Avenue Chicago, III., U. S. A. 



94 



MAR 27 19^ 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
MAK 27 1911 



; il>5^f :a-b5;tnij^--5^;^'v>!!?iiJ>-^i 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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